Sports stats



Pirates Reach Lofty Heights

March 3, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


PORTLAND, ME - The Portland Pirates climb up the Eastern Conference ladder reached a new rung on Sunday with a win over the Springfield Falcons. That victory, coupled with a loss by the Manchester Monarchs, moved the Pirates into fourth place in the conference standings, their highest ranking of the season. After a rocky start with a tie and a loss to Saint John, the Pirates came on strong with back-to-back 4-1 wins over Worcester and Springfield. With 16 games remaining in the regular season, the Pirates are now 30-21-8-5, good for 73 points. The Pirates will play three games against North Division opponents this week, hosting Manchester and Providence before visiting Providence on Sunday to start a four-game road trip.

LAST WEEK:

Wednesday, February 26: Pirates 2, Saint John 2 (OT)

The Pirates overcame seven of eight Flames' power plays in the second of three straight games between the two rivals. Saint John took advantage of a 5-on-3 powerplay to go up 1-0 after one. The period ended with a melee involving all ten skaters on the ice that resulted in a five-minute powerplay for Saint John. The Pirates held the Flames at bay, knotting the score at 1-1 on a Josef Boumedienne goal following the penalty kill. Just over three minutes later, the Pirates had just their second powerplay and scored when Trent Whitfield rammed home a Boumedienne rebound to go up 2-1. Maxime Ouellet stopped Matt Lombardi on a penalty shot early in the third period but the Flames would get the equalizer at 13:43 of the third when Ryan Christie scored. The score would remain 2-2 despite a Pirates' powerplay in overtime.

Thursday, February 27: Saint John 3, Pirates 2

The Pirates and Flames proved the old adage is true-familiarity breeds contempt. With pressure reaching the boiling point early, the two teams exchanged seven minor penalties before Saint John jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. The Pirates struck back less than a minute later with Peter Ferraro's 12th of the year. The teams again exchanged goals in the second period, with Portland's Andreas Salomonsson answering an early goal from Chuck Kobasew to even the game at 2-2 after 40 minutes. Saint John went ahead for good at the 9:49 mark of the third period as Blair Betts put his second of the night behind Maxime Ouellet.

Saturday, February 28: Pirates 4, Worcester 1

Portland shrugged off the three-game winless streak to earn two valuable points in the Eastern Conference standings. The Pirates broke open a close game with three third-period goals. Portland grabbed a 1-0 lead on a powerplay goal by Salomonsson and held that advantage into the third period. The IceCats answered with a goal from Greg Day just 2:10 into the period. The Pirates responded with a vengeance, scoring the first of three unanswered goals just 1:31 later when Mark Murphy tallied his first goal in ten games since returning from an injury. Colin Forbes and Trent Whitfield added insurance goals later to seal the win, 4-1. Rastislav Stana picked up the win with 30 saves.

Sunday, March 2: Pirates 4 , Springfield 1

This game was very similar to Friday's contest in Worcester. The Pirates grabbed a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a goal by Chris Ferraro. The Falcons tied the game later on a powerplay tally by Boyd Kane. After a scoreless second period, the Pirates broke the game open in the third. Jakub Cutta, returning after missing nine games with injury, scored 2:29 into the third period for the eventual game-winning goal, the first in his career. Mark Murphy scored 2:39 later for some breathing room and Chris Ferraro finished the scoring at 10:25 with his second of the day. The Pirates finished the season series with the Falcons at 2-2-0-0.

PIRATES PLAY TWO AT HOME BEFORE HITTING THE ROAD FOR FOUR STRAIGHT

Wednesday, March 5 vs. Manchester, 7:05 PM

The Pirates will host the Monarchs for the final time this season. The Pirates are undefeated in regulation at home versus Manchester, posting a 2-0-0-2 record at the Civic Center. Four of the eight games between the two rivals have gone to overtime with Portland leading the season series 3-1-2-2. The Monarchs are in the middle of a ten-game road trip and are coming to Portland winless in their last eight games (0-6-2-0). They have lost three straight after coming up empty in games at Norfolk, Hershey and Philadelphia last weekend. The season series will conclude in Manchester on April 2. The all-time series between the two clubs is knotted at 7-7-4.

Saturday, March 8 vs. Providence, 2:05 PM

The Pirates and the Providence Bruins will face off for the third time this season in a game televised locally by ABC-8, WMTW. It will be the 100th meeting all-time between the long-time rivals and the final game between the two teams in Portland this season. The Pirates put together two of the better offensive games in the previously televised games, picking up a 5-3 win on January 11 and a 7-4 win in the last meeting on January 25. Overall, Portland leads the season series 4-2-0-1 and is 3-1-0-0 at home versus the Bruins. The Pirates are 46-41-12 all-time against the Baby Bs. The Bruins will host Manitoba on Friday before coming to Portland.

Sunday, March 9 vs. Providence, 2:05 PM

The Pirates and Bruins will square off for the second time in as many nights in the tail end of the home-and-home set. The Bruins have a league-best home record of 24-3-4-1 to begin the week. The Pirates have both won and lost in overtime at the Dunkin' Donuts Center this season and have a record of 1-1-0-1 in the Ocean State this year. Providence picked up a 4-2 win on December 28 in their last meeting in Providence. All-time, the Pirates are 18-25-6 in Providence. The Bruins will be finishing off a three-in-three stretch, one of 19 such strings for the Bruins this season. The game will mark the first of four straight on the road for the Pirates.

CALDER CUP PLAYOFF FORMAT: Teams are seeded 1-10 according to points with the top three seeds going to each division winner based on their point totals. The AHL will hold a qualifying round pitting the last four teams against one another in a 7 vs. 10 and 8 vs. 9 format. The winners of each series will then be reseeded based upon their regular season point totals with the lower seed playing the number one team and the higher seed playing the number two team. The third seeded team will play the sixth seeded team and the fourth seeded team will play the fifth seeded team in the Quarterfinal round, a best of five series.

SHIP'S LOG:

· The Pirates matched their win total from 2001-2002 on Sunday when they earned their 30th win of the season with a 4-1 win over Springfield. The Pirates have 16 games remaining in the regular season.

· The Pirates have matched a season-best mark of nine games above .500.

· The Pirates' next home win will be the 200th in franchise history.

· The Pirates set new highs in two penalty categories this past week. The Pirates received a season-high 71 penalty minutes on February 26th, a 2-2 tie at Saint John. They finished the week with a season-high 19 penalties for 44 minutes in a 4-1 win over Springfield on March 2nd.

· With a 4-1 win on Friday, February 28th in Worcester, the Pirates bumped their record to 7-3-1-1 in the third game of three-in-three stretches this season.

TRANSACTIONS:

None

ON THE AIR:

The Pirates' game on March 8 will be the third of four televised on ABC-8, WMTW. Norm Karkos will handle the play-by-play duties while Steve DeOssie will provide the analysis. Melissa Moskau will conduct intermission interviews and Travis Lee serves as the studio host. John Gregory is the producer.

As always, 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.

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from March 3, 2003


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Portland Pirates Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central