St. John’s, NL — The Portland Pirates exploded for 7 goals on Friday night, ending a 4 game winless streak and snapping the St. John’s IceCaps’ franchise record 9 game win streak with a final score of 7-4. 7 different Pirates scored for Portland in their highest offensive output of the season.
The Pirates came out shooting. Tobias Rieder tallied his 23rd goal of the season at 7:50 of the first, with assists from Jordan Szwarz and Connor Murphy, to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. After a high sticking penalty on Kyle MacKinnon, Brandon Yip doubled the score on his 8th goal of the year. Jordan Martinook and Brendan Shinnimin picked up assists on Yip’s tally. 2:04 later, Szwarz scored his own goal, his 6th of the season, to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead. Jordon Southorn, playing in his first game for the Pirates, picked up his first career AHL assist and point on Szwarz’s goal. With just under a minute to go, Darian Dziurzynski capped one of the best periods of the year for the Pirates, ripping a shot past Hutchinson for his 2nd goal of the year and a 4-0 Pirates lead. Martinook picked up his second assist of the period on Dziurzynski’s goal. The Pirates outshot the IceCaps 13-7 in the first, with Louis Domingue making all 7 saves for Portland.
The IceCaps responded in the second with a pair of goals. Adam Lowry beat Domingue at 5:11 of the second to narrow the Pirates lead to 4-1. Just 2:03 after Lowry’s goal, Will O'Neill registered the second St. John’s goal, a 4 on 3 power play tally at 7:13 of the second. Jordon Southorn nearly scored his first AHL goal on a shot that beat Hutchinson, but the play was blow dead before the puck crossed the line. With 43 seconds left in the period, Phil Lane was boarded by Ben Chiarot, resulting in a major penalty and misconduct for Chiarot and a 5 minute power play for the Pirates that carried into the third.
The Pirates would capitalize on the power play early in the third. Lucas Lessio put the Pirates up 5-2 1:06 into the period with his 21st goal of the year. Randy Jones and Brandon Yip added assists on Lessio’s goal. 1:03 later, the IceCaps’ Patrice Cormier capitalized on a shorthanded opportunity, beating Domingue to make the score 5-3. 3:09 after Cormier’s goal, J.C. Lipon brought the IceCaps closer, converting on a rebound to make the score 5-4. However, the Pirates answered back. With the IceCaps exerting massive pressure on the Pirates, Phil Lane broke through and buried a goal at 12:08 of the third, his third goal of the year, to give the Pirates a 2 goal cushion. Rieder assisted Lane’s insurance goal. With the IceCaps’ net empty and an unusual 5 on 4 IceCaps power play, Jordan Martinook sealed the game for Portland, putting home an empty net goal for the Pirates. Martinook’s goal was his 11th of the year and third point of the night, with Jones picking up his 2nd assist of the night.
The 7 goals is the most scored by the Pirates since they scored 7 on January 8th, 2013 against the Worcester Sharks at the Cumberland County Civic Center. Jordan Martinook led the team with a 3 point night, while Tobias Rieder, Jordan Szwarz, Randy Jones, and Brandon Yip each had two point nights. Louis Domingue made 26 saves, snapping a personal 5 game winless streak dating back to February 16 against Adirondack.
The Pirates will play their last regular season game in St. John’s tomorrow night at 6 PM EST. The game can be heard on the Pirates flagship stations WPEI 95.5/95.9 FM as well as WEZR FM 105.5/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 Saturday on the Pirates official Facebook page and Twitter account (@PortlandPirates) with the hashtag #PiratesAway.
The Pirates have announced eight guaranteed dates for the 2014-15 season as the Pirates return to the Cumberland County Civic Center! Group tickets are available for all eight of the announced dates and flex and season tickets for the 2014-15 season are now on sale! For more information on the guaranteed dates, click here and for more information on ticket plans, call 207-828-4665.
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