Brisebois, Louis Each Score as Pirates hold off IceCaps

St. John’s, NL – Three Pirates goals in a span of 4 minutes in the second period, including the first career goals for Mathieu Brisebois and Mark Louis, were the difference as the Pirates defeated the St. John’s IceCaps 5-4 in a wild game at MileOne Centre in St. John’s. Louis Domingue made 30 saves in the win to remain unbeaten in regulation for his AHL career.

The IceCaps had the first opportunity of the game, but it was the Pirates who capitalized first. After Jerome Sampson was dragged down in front of the next at 14:27, he was awarded a penalty shot, which was stymied by a pad save from Louis Domingue. Brett Hextall then put the Pirates on the board, registering his 6th goal of the year with 11:57 left in the first period. Hextall’s goal was assisted by Jordan Martinook, and came with the extra attacker on for a delayed penalty. Just 2:05 later, the Pirates lead was doubled as Tobias Rieder took a Brandon McMillan feed and slipped it past Jussi Olkinuora to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. Rieder’s goal was his 10th of the year, making him the second Pirates player to reach double digits in goals behind Andy Miele. Olkinuora was relieved in net by Eddie Pasquale following Rieder’s goal, and the IceCaps struck back, with JC Lipon tallying his 6th of the year with 1:33 left in the period to bring the IceCaps within 1. Both teams had 13 shots in the first period.

St. John’s tied in in the second. After a penalty to Mathieu Brisebois, Will O'Neill scored the tying goal for St. John’s, his 4th of the year. O’Neill’s goal came 5:55 into the second and ended the Pirates’ streak of 18 straight penalty kills dating back to the third period of December 21st’s game against the Providence Bruins. From there, the Pirates would dominate. After penalties to Schnell and Chiarot gave the Pirates a 5 on 3, Lucas Lessio retook the lead for the Pirates with his 9th goal of the year at 12:45 of the second. Daine Todd had the lone assist. As the power play continued, Mathieu Brisebois struck for the Pirates just 61 seconds later, with his first professional goal coming at 13:46 of the second. Randy Jones and Rieder had the assists, giving Rieder a 2 point night. The Pirates weren’t finished, as Mark Louis, the converted defensemen playing in his 105th career game, would get in on the action, taking a feed from Brandon McMillan and putting it past Pasquale for his first professional goal at 16:13 of the second. Jordan Szwarz assisted Louis’s first ever Pirates goal, and Pirates took a 5-2 lead into the third.

The IceCaps would mount a comeback in the third. John Albert scored first in the third period and put the IceCaps within 2 with 17:06 left in regulation. Kael Mouillierat then added a power play tally just under 2 minutes later with 15:18 left, and brought St. John’s within one. However, Louis Domingue stood strong and kept the IceCaps off the board. With the win, Domingue remains unbeaten in regulation in his AHL career and improves to 5-0-1 on the season.

The Pirates and IceCaps meet in the final game of their three game set tomorrow night, with each team looking for the series win. Puck drop is at 6 PM EST and the 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 Follow all the action on the Pirates official Facebook page and Twitter account (@PortlandPirates) with the hashtag #PiratesAway.