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Pirates Hang on to Defeat Bruins

April 8, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


Providence, RI - The Portland Pirates (39-25-5-2) defended a third period charge by the Providence Bruins (36-22-9-4) to win by a score of 3-2 Friday night at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. With the fourth straight victory, the Pirates overtake the Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division.

Sena Acolatse, who was a healthy scratch in the last three games, fired a one timer past Jeremy Smith to open the scoring at 16:18 of the first period. The defenseman's seventh of the season was assisted by Wade Megan and Logan Shaw.

Wayne Simpson would give the Pirates a 2-0 lead as the forward collected a Corban Knight pass before putting the puck in short side to double the Pirates lead just 1:52 later. Portland is now 7-0-0 when Simpson scores.

Knight slid in a bouncing puck at 8:56 of the second period to chase starting goalie Jeremy Smith out of the game and put the Pirates ahead for good. With the goal Knight and Simpson collected their second points of the night with the other assist going to Rob Schremp.

The Providence Bruins scored in the first and last minutes of the third period but that wasn't enough to overtake the Pirates. '

Brandon DeFazio broke the ice for Providence on the power-play with a one-timer from the slot just 29 seconds into the third period with assists from Austin Czarnik and Alexander Khokhlachev.

With Zane McIntyre on the bench in exchange for the extra attacker, Ben Youds sent a centering pass to Czarnik, who roofed the puck over Mike McKenna's glove pulling the Bruins within one with just 44 seconds left. Colton Hargrove got the second assist.

McKenna made a number of key saves throughout the contest, stopping 35 shots in all, to improve his record to 32-15-5 on the season. With his 147th game in a Pirates uniform, McKenna overtakes Maxime Ouellet for 2nd all-time in games played by a goalie in franchise history.

Smith stopped 18 shots and takes the loss dropping to 15-19-4. McIntyre stopped all 15 shots he faced to hold his record at 12-8-7 so far this season.

The Pirates conclude the home-and-home series with the Bruins on Saturday, April 9 at 7:00 p.m. at Cross Insurance Arena. Saturday is Hall of Fame night. Be a part of franchise history as former Portland Pirates captain and Assistant Coach Trent Whitfield will be officially inducted as the 20th Member of the Hall of Fame during a pre-game ceremony.

The Pirates round out the weekend hosting the Hartford Wolf Pack for a Sunday Matinee game on April 10. Puck drop is set for 3 p.m. Join the Pirates in celebrating Salty Pete's Birthday! For tickets or more information visit PortlandPirates.com or CALL 207-PIRATES.

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