Pirates Slate Set for 2007-08 AHL Season

Published on August 7, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


PORTLAND, ME - Today the Portland Pirates announced their 2007-08 American Hockey League regular season schedule. The Pirates will begin their 15th season at home on Friday, October 5, 2007 against the Springfield Falcons at 7:05 p.m. In addition to opening night, the Pirates schedule features the popular Kid's New Year's game which will be part of New Year's Portland and a franchise first, a special 1:05 p.m. game on Martin Luther King Day (January 21). The American League Hockey schedule will begin on Wednesday, October 3rd. The 2007-08 season will be the AHL's 72nd year of operation, and will feature an all-time high of 29 teams. Last season over 200 first and second round picks played in the AHL and a record-high 6.3 million fans attended AHL contests.

Pirates head coach Kevin Dineen will be entering his 3rd season in search of his 100th win behind the bench alongside his two new assistants, his brother Gord Dineen and Matt Laatsch. Only two other coaches in Pirates history have won 100 or more games (Barry Trotz and Glen Hanlon). Last season, Portland became just the 5th team in the history of the AHL to eclipse 500 franchise victories and eclipsed 30 or more wins for the eighth consecutive season. Pirates players also participated in 153 games in Anaheim and 13 former Pirates, Sebastien Caron, Ryan Carter, Ryan Getzlaf, Mark Hartigan, Kent Huskins, Chris Kunitz, Drew Miller, Joe Motzko, Corey Perry, Dustin Penner, Aaron Rome, Ryan Shannon, Shawn Thornton were all a part of the 2007 Stanley Cup Champion, Anaheim Ducks. Over the last two seasons, former Pirates have played in over 500 NHL games.

Over the past two seasons, while affiliated with Anaheim, the Pirates have the best two-year winning percentage (.562) in the 14 year history of the franchise. In addition, attendance in Portland has increased from an average of 4,339 in 2004-05 to 5,260 in 2006-07 (21% increase over two seasons) with the highest average attendance in 10 years coming last season. The 210,819th fan this season will mark the 3,000,000th Pirates fan. Over the past 31 years of professional hockey in Portland, over 5.5 millions fans have experienced professional hockey at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

"We are excited about this year's schedule. It gives our team a great opportunity to perform and develop at their best and the attractive weekend based-home schedule against some of our best conference rivals will allow our fans to enjoy the excitement of Pirates hockey at the Cumberland County Civic Center as never before," said Pirates Managing Owner/CEO Brian Petrovek.

The schedule features family-friendly dates on Monday, December 31st and Monday, January 21 along with 8 Sundays at 4:05 p.m. The December 31st game, with a special 5:35 p.m. start time against the Lowell Devils, will mark the 13th year the Pirates have hosted Kid's New Year's. The contest on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 21st against Bridgeport, will feature an early 1:05 p.m. start time. This will be the first time in franchise history that the Pirates have hosted a 1:05 p.m. game on a weekday.

The home schedule is jam-packed with weekend games, with all but four Pirates home contests on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The 13 Friday and 15 Saturday match-ups will at begin at 7:05 p.m., while the 8 Sunday games have once again a family-friendly afternoon start time of 4:05 p.m. The Pirates schedule includes home games down the stretch run, with five home games in February and eight home games in March, the highest total home games during those two months since the 1996-97 season (13). The Pirates 2007-08 promotional schedule, radio and television plans and preseason schedule will all be announced at a later date.

Coming off a highly competitive season in the Atlantic Division, the Pirates will face Atlantic Division rivals Providence, Lowell, Springfield, Manchester and Worcester a total of 10 times each and play Hartford eight times. The Pirates will also face-off against East Division teams Philadelphia, Binghamton, Albany, Wilkes-Barre, Norfolk, Bridgeport and Hershey this season.

The longest home stand on the 2007-08 schedule is five games. This will occur twice during the season from December 15 thru December 22, and January 21 thru February 2. The Pirates will take their longest road trip of the season (seven games) from February 6 until February 23 with games against Hershey, Wilkes-Barre, Bridgeport, Providence, Hartford, Springfield, and Worcester.

Season ticket plans for the 2007-08 season are now on sale at the Pirates office, located at 94 Free Street in Portland. This season the Pirates are offering exciting new ticket options including seating in the Funtown Splashtown Family Fun Zone hosted by Jolly John (www.portlandpirates.com/funtownfunzone.asp) along with new early season flex ticket packages starting as low as $40. Fans can also purchase reserved seating ticket plans for 10 games, 20 games and the full season for as low as $60.

The Pirates office is open Monday through Friday 8:30a.m. to 4:30p.m. Fans can also purchase tickets over the phone by calling (207) 828-4665 x350 or by e-mailing tickets@portlandpirates.com.

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