Pirates do Some Road Tripping this Week

Published on December 8, 2003 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


PORTLAND, ME - The Portland Pirates will look to improve their road record this week when they visit three Atlantic Division foes. The Pirates are 2-9-0-1 away from the Cumberland County Civic Center this season. Their travels will take them to Lowell, Massachusetts on Friday, Springfield, Massachusetts on Saturday and Hartford, Connecticut on Sunday for games against the Lowell Lock Monsters, the Springfield Falcons and the Hartford Wolf Pack respectively. All three are teams the Pirates are chasing in the division race. The Pirates are coming off a loss to Hartford and a tie with Springfield last weekend at home. The Pirates begin the week in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 8-13-1-2, good for 19 points. They are winless in their last seven games (0-4-1-2).

LAST WEEK:

Friday, December 5: Hartford 3, Pirates 1

The Hartford Wolf Pack erased a one-goal deficit with three third period goals to beat the Pirates 3-1 at the Cumberland County Civic Center. The Pirates played well against one of the Atlantic Division's top teams through the first two periods and took their first lead in the season series when Andrej Podkonicky scored his first goal of the season at 4:42. Jason Ulmer earned one assist and Mike Vigilante earned his first point as a Pirate with the other assist. The Wolf Pack tied the game midway through the third period when Bobby Andrews redirected a feed from Corey Larose past Maxime Ouellet. A little less than four minutes later, the Pack had the game winner. The Pirates got trapped in the offensive zone leading to a four-on-one rush for Hartford in the other direction. Ouellet stopped Andrews' slap shot but rugged defenseman John Jakopin slammed home the rebound to make it 2-1. Larose capped off the night by scoring into an empty net in the last minute for the 3-1 final.

Saturday, December 6: Pirates 3, Springfield 3 OT

The Pirates twice erased one-goal deficits to earn a 3-3 tie with the Springfield Falcons on a wintery night at the Civic Center. The Falcons struck first when Jeremiah McCarthy converted the rebound of a shot by Krystofer Kolanos at 8:02 of the first period. The Pirates answered with 1:10 to go in the first. Goalie Jean-Marc Pelletier stopped Brad Parsons' backhander but Graham Mink poked in the rebound on his second chance to tie the game at one. That momentum carried over into the second period. Just 40 seconds in, Trent Whitfield dropped the puck to Dwayne Zinger off a four-on-two rush and Zinger wired a shot past the glove hand of Pelletier for his fourth goal of the year. The Falcons tied the game and retook the lead off two hard-working goals by Michael Schutte that came 2:41 apart late in the second. It was 3-2 Falcons after two. The Pirates carried the play in the third period and finally tied it up when Colin Forbes knocked a rebound chance out of the air and past Pelletier with 3:10 to go in regulation. The Falcons got all four shots on goal in overtime but Maxime Ouellet stopped them all to preserve the 3-3 tie. It was the Pirates' first tie of the season.

PIRATES PREPARE TO TOUR NEW ENGLAND

* Friday, December 12, 2003 at Lowell, 7:00 PM

The Pirates play the Lowell Lock Monsters for just the second time this season. The teams first met on Opening Night, October 10th. The Lock Monsters won that night 2-1 thanks to a pair of powerplay goals. Graham Mink had the Pirates' first goal of the season. Lowell leads the all-time series with the Pirates 25-21-7 and also holds a slim lead in games played at Tsongas Arena-11-10-6. Lowell begins the week in fifth place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 10-10-2-1, good for 23 points. That puts them four ahead of the Pirates. The Lock Monsters have done much of their damage at home, posting a record of 6-2-1-1 at Tsongas Arena. Lowell has played a division-low 23 games. The Lock Monsters, like the Pirates, are trying to end a streak-Lowell has lost its last three games. Pavel Brendl leads the Monsters in scoring with 19 points. Martin Sonnenberg has a team-best 11 goals and is third in scoring with 17 points. Mike Zigomanis leads the team in assists with 14. He is fourth in scoring with 16 points. Patrick DesRochers has seen the majority of time in goal, posting a 7-6-1 record and a 2.84 goals-against average.

* Saturday, December 13, 2003 at Springfield, 7:35 PM

The Pirates and the Falcons meet for the third time this season and the second of four times in the month of December. So far, the Pirates have earned a win and a tie against the Falcons. This will be first meeting of the two teams in Springfield. The Falcons lead the all-time series 40-27-7. A vast majority of that success has come at home where the Birds are 24-9-3 all time against the Pirates. So far, the Falcons are 6-5-1-0 at home this season. Springfield begins the week in sixth place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 8-12-3-1, good for 20 points. That puts them just one point ahead of the Pirates. The Falcons are unbeaten in their last two games (1-0-1-0) but just 3-5-1-1 in their last ten. Jeff Taffe leads the Falcons in scoring with ten goals and 16 points but he remains on recall to the Phoenix Coyotes. Former Pirate Peter Ferraro has been injured for the last few games but remains in second place in team scoring with 15 points. David LeNeveu and Jean-Marc Pelletier split time in the Falcons' goal. LeNeveu leads the team with a record of 5-5-1 and a 2.70 goals-against average. The Falcons will travel to Albany on Friday night before hosting the Pirates.

* Sunday, December 14, 2003 at Hartford, 4:05 PM

The Pirates finish the weekend with their second visit of the season to Hartford. It will be game five of the eight-game season series and so far, it's all gone the Wolf Pack's way. Hartford is 4-0-0-0 against the Pirates this season. They won their first meeting in Hartford 3-1 on October 11th. All time, the Wolf Pack has dominated the series, posting a record of 18-7-5 including a record of 8-3-3 at the Hartford Civic Center. The Pack starts the week tied for the lead in the division with the Providence Bruins. Hartford is 13-6-4-1, good for 31 points. The Wolf Pack has gone 8-1-4-0 at home this season and is 5-4-1-0 in its last ten games. Chad Wiseman leads the team in scoring with 17 points, including a team-best 12 assists. Jason MacDonald is a point behind and has a team-leading nine goals. Jason LaBarbera is getting most of the work in net. He's 9-3-3 with a 1.69 goals-against average, the fourth-best mark in the AHL. Hartford will visit the Providence Bruins on Friday and host the Utah Grizzlies on Saturday before welcoming the Pirates on Sunday.

SHIP'S LOG:

* The Pirates set new season-highs for shots on goal in consecutive nights. After not registering more than 30 shots on goal through the first 22 games, they had 32 against Hartford on Friday. The next night, they had 47 against the Springfield Falcons.

* The Pirates also set a new season-high for shots on goal in a period with 18 against Hartford in the second period. They matched that mark the next night against Springfield in the first period.

* Wing Mike Vigilante earned his first point as a Pirate with an assist on Andrej Podkonicky's goal in a 3-1 loss to Hartford on Friday.

TRANSACTIONS:

12/5/03 ADD Nathan Lutz (D), signed to a professional tryout by Washington (NHL)

IN THE COMMUNITY:

Forwards Mel Angelstad and Garret Stroshein are scheduled to appear in the Maine Mall at the Adopt a Hometown Hero booth outside of Filenes on Tuesday, December 9th at 4:00 p.m. The players will be greeting shoppers who stop by to send holiday e-mail messages to local soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Wednesday, December 10th at 4:00 p.m., forward Owen Fussey and defenseman Louis Robitaille are scheduled to appear for Portland Pirates' Day at the Portland Downtown District's outdoor skating rink in Congress Square. Pirates' mascot Crackers is also scheduled to be there.

In addition, head coach Tim Army will appear on WJAB's "Morning JAB" program at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Forward Colin Forbes will appear on the "Morning JAB" on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. after being selected as the WJAB Player of the Month for November. Two more players still to be determined will appear on WBLM's Morning Show from 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. to promote the Pirates' appearance at the Holiday Skating Event. Pirates' broadcaster Dave Ahlers will join the "Morning JAB" program on Thursday at 8:00 a.m. On that same day, Pirates' defenseman Dwayne Zinger will appear on WMSJ at 8:15 a.m.

ON THE AIR:

Once again this season, all the action of the Portland Pirates' hockey may be heard on Flagship Station WJAB, AM-1440 and FM-95.5 in Portland and on network affiliates WKTQ AM-1450, South Paris; WTME AM-790 Rumford and 1220 AM, ESPN Radio in Sanford. All games may also be heard on the Pirates' web site, www.portlandpirates.com.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 8, 2003


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