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Pirates Ring in New Year with 4-2 Victory over Sound Tigers

December 31, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


Lewiston, ME - The Pirates dropped the puck with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in front of a sellout crowd of 3,737 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisée in their final game of 2013. Brett Hextall scored twice and Lucas Lessio scored the game winning goal for the Pirates to put them over .500 at home for the first time this season.

The game started with the Sound Tigers and Pirates trading penalties. The Sound Tigers' Anders Lee was sent to the box 5:31 into the first for slashing. Just over two minutes later Pirates' Tobias Rieder was called for holding. Neither team capitalized on their first power play opportunities. Pirates captain Jordan Szwarz was called for boarding at 12:43. The Sound Tigers got on the board first with a goal from Pierre-Marc Bouchard 12:16 into the game. Joe Diamond and Alan Quine picked up the assist.

The Sound Tigers' Anders Lee scored 55 seconds into the second on the power play, with Dallas Jackson and Mike Halmo were credited with the assists. The Pirates were able to cut the lead by 1 with a late period goal coming from Brett Hextall with help from Lucas Lessio and Mathieu Brisebois.

The Pirates came back and scored three goals in the final period. After Mark Cantin was assessed a match penalty after a hit to the head on Brendan Shinnimin, Jordan Szwarz tied it up for the Pirates. 38 seconds into the 5-minute power play, Szwarz with assist from Brandon Gormley. Lucas Lessio gave the Pirates their first lead in the game with 14 seconds left on the power play, threading the needle to beat 2 defenders and Bridgeport goaltender Anders Nilsson. Brett Hextall sealed the game by converting on an empty net goal with 28.2 seconds left for his second tally of the night and improve to 13-11-1-4 on the year.

The Pirates will see their next action on Saturday when they start a 3 game road trip in St. John's against the IceCaps. Puck drop is set for 6 PM. Saturday's game can be heard on the Pirates flagship stations WPEI 95.5/95.9 FM as well as WEZR AM 1240 in the Lewiston/Auburn area and WTME AM 780/1450 in Oxford County. The game can also be heard online at portlandpirates.com by clicking "Listen Live" and can be seen live on AHL Live at ahllive.com . The pregame show starts at 5:40 with Jeff Mannix.



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