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Pirates Beat Bears in Home Opener

October 17, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


Portland, ME - The Portland Pirates (1-1-0-0) overcame a first period deficit to beat the Hershey Bears (1-1-0-0) 3-2 in front of the home crowd at Cross Insurance Arena on Saturday night. Opening Night presented by Bill Dodge Auto Group didn't disappoint with Logan Shaw netting a pair of power play goals in the second period to put Portland on top.

"It's the way we wanted to start, especially playing at home. We want this building to be a hard rink for other teams to come into and we want to play fast and hard," said Shaw. Talking about the power play goals, Pirates' head coach Tom Rowe praised the special teams saying that the "power play had really good movement and got the looks that we were looking for."

Hershey suffered a penalty early on in the first period for having too many men on the ice. The penalty wasn't a deterrent however, and the Bears drew first blood at 6:30 in the first period when Dustin Gazley scored a short-handed goal with an assist from Liam O'Brien.

The Pirates answered back in the second period when Shaw netted a power play goal with help from Brent Regner and Rocco Grimaldi at 2:42. Shaw did it again with another power play goal at 9:46 assisted by Garrett Wilson and Gregg McKegg. The Bears tied the game 2-2 thanks to a goal from Jakub Vrana on the power play, assisted by Chris Bourque and Carter Camper at 15:51. Wade Megan put the Pirates back on top with the eventual game winner at 18:52, assisted by Cameron Gaunce and Regner.

The Bears kept the pressure up in throughout the third period, but the Pirates were able to hold on for the win. Goaltender Mike McKenna (1-1-0) had 24 saves, allowing 2 goals, bringing his Gorham Savings Bank Saves for Charity total to 24 saves, amounting to $240, so far this season. Justin Peters (0-1-0) manned the net for the Bears, saving 21 of 24 shots faced.

The Pirates are back in action tomorrow afternoon for a Sunday Matinee game at 3 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Arena. Join us for a post-game skate with the players presented by L.L. Bean. For tickets and more information, Call 207-PIRATES.

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