Pirates Continue Winning Ways at Home

December 16, 2002 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


PORTLAND, ME - The Portland Pirates picked up four points last week while extending their winning streak at home to three straight games. The Pirates sandwiched a couple of dramatic come-from-behind wins over the Lowell Lock Monsters and St. John's Maple Leafs around a road loss to the Providence Bruins. The team will return to the three-in-three routine this week when they visit the AHL's top dogs, the Hamilton Bulldogs, on Friday, the Binghamton Senators on Saturday and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Sunday. This will mark the second of five consecutive three-in-three sets for Portland through the New Year. The Pirates begin the week in fourth place in the North Division with a record of 12-10-2-4, good for 30 points.

LAST WEEK:

Thursday, December 12, 2002: Pirates 4, Lowell 3

The Pirates extended the visiting Lock Monsters' winless streak to twelve games and continued their domination over the struggling club. Despite having surrendered three consecutive shutouts to Portland this season, the Monsters appeared less than intimidated entering the game, outshooting the Pirates 14-6 and scoring the lone goal of the opening period. The goal halted their scoreless streak vs. Portland at 199:38.

Lowell extended its lead to 2-0 midway through the second period only to see Todd Rohloff score :21 later. Graham Mink fought off two checkers in the third to knot the score at 2-2, and Matt Pettinger gave the Pirates their first lead of the game with his tally at 7:24. Lowell fought back with a powerplay goal at the 13:25 mark, but just :52 later, Mark Murphy curled the net and banked a shot off the back of a sprawling Randy Petruk for the eventual game-winner.

Friday, December 13, 2002: Providence 4, Pirates 2

The Bruins capitalized on their first three powerplays to put the game out of reach early. Portland finally slipped one in with a Colin Forbes' goal just inside the far post in the second period. A fortunate Bruins bounce, however, put the squad down by three again as an errant Providence shot ricocheted off a Pirate and past goalie Rastislav Stana. Pulling Stana for the extra attacker, Portland capitalized on a 4-on-3 as Graham Mink picked up the Pirates' second of the night at 14:07 of the third. Three late penalties killed the Pirates' momentum, however, as Providence held on for the 4-2 victory.

Saturday, December 14, 2002: Pirates 3, Maple Leafs 2

The Pirates extended their home winning streak to a season-high three games with a victory over the Maple Leafs. Former Pirate Dwayne Hay got St. John's on the board first, tipping home a feed from another former Pirate, Craig Mills, for their only lead of the game. Portland answered with a Pettinger goal with just :04 remaining in the first period. Mike Farrell put his team up 2-1 with a powerplay goal at the 14:50 mark of the second. St. John's knotted the score at 2-2 just over a minute later, but a highlight reel goal by Mink early in the third was enough as Portland held on for the win.

MINK NOMINATED AS SHER-WOOD/AHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

The Portland Pirates nominated right wing Graham Mink as the Sher-Wood/AHL Player of the Week for the week ending December 15, 2002. In three games last week, Mink had three goals and an assist. On Thursday, December 12th, Mink had a goal and an assist in the Pirates' 4-3 win over the Lowell Lock Monsters. The next night, the native of Stowe, Vermont had another goal in the Pirates' 4-2 loss at Providence. He finished the week with the game-winning goal in a 3-2 victory over the St. John's Maple Leafs on December 14th. In the process, he tied his own team season-high goal-scoring streak at four games.

PIRATES TAKE THREE-IN-THREE SHOW ON THE ROAD

Friday, December 20 at Hamilton, 7:00 pm

The Pirates start off another three-in-three stretch by taking on the Hamilton Bulldogs, the league's top team with a record of 23-6-1-2. Hamilton has dominated the Canadian Division, entering the week with an 18-point lead over the second place Manitoba Moose and outscoring the opposition an astounding 120-64 in 32 games played. They enter the week in the midst of a seven-game winning streak and are 9-0-01 in their last ten games. Hamilton held the Pirates scoreless in their last meeting, 2-0, on November 30 and holds the edge in the all-time series, 3-1-1. The Bulldogs host Bridgeport on Wednesday.

Saturday, December 21 at Binghamton, 7:05 pm

With the return of AHL hockey to Binghamton this season, the Pirates will get their first look at the inaugural Senators squad on Saturday. Currently 4th in the East with a record of 12-10-3-1, the Senators have played well as of late, going 6-3-1-0 in their last ten yet find themselves entering the week on a 0-1-1-0 winless streak. Binghamton will close out the season series, making their first and only trip to Portland on February 9. The Senators visit Springfield on Friday.

Sunday, December 22 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 5:05 pm

The Pirates will close out their pre-holiday schedule with an afternoon contest at the First Union Arena at Casey Plaza. While the Penguins have not found themselves on the top of the standings this season, they have found themselves near the top of the attendance race, drawing an impressive average of 8,294 in their 4th season and trailing only Manchester in that category. The Pirates picked up a win over the visiting Penguins on December 1 in a closely contested 3-2 overtime game and hold a decisive edge in the all-time series at 3-0-0. The Pens begin the week in third place in the South Division with a record of 11-13-2-2. They host Philadelphia on Saturday before welcoming the Pirates.

SHIP'S LOG:

· Left wing Mark Murphy scored points in all three games last week to run his personal point-scoring streak to five games. He is one game away from tying the team season-high for consecutive games with a point.

· Goaltender Maxime Ouellet won both games for the Pirates over the weekend and has now won his last five starts to boost his record to 7-3-0. His 2.48 goals-against average ranks him 14th in the AHL.

· The Pirates team shutout streak against the Lowell Lock Monsters ended with Brett Lysak's goal at 18:03 of the first period of the Pirates' 4-3 win on December 12th. The streak ended at 199:38 dating back to October 25th.

· In that same game, the Pirates won their first game when trailing after two periods. The Pirates are 1-7-1-1 in that situation this season.

· The Pirates continued their home mastery of the St. John's Maple Leafs. With Saturday's 3-2 win, the Pirates have now gone 21-5-2 against the Leafs all-time at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

TRANSACTIONS:

12/10/02 DELETE Nick Lent (RW), released from PTO
12/10/02 DELETE Brad Parsons (C), released from ATO
12/10/02 ADD Brad Parsons (C), signed to a PTO
12/10/02 DELETE Matt Libby (D), released from PTO
12/10/02 ADD Matt Libby (D), signed to a SPC

ON THE AIR:

All Pirates' games can be heard live on the Pirates Radio Network. Sports Radio, WJAB, am-1440 and fm-95.5 serve as the flagship stations. Games may also be heard on WKTQ am-1450, South Paris; WTME am-790 Rumford and 1220 AM, ESPN Radio in Sanford.



American Hockey League Stories from December 16, 2002


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