enlarge Jill Brady/Staff Photographer

Tyler Bouck of the Pirates tries to control the puck while chased by Springfield’s Liam Reddox in Portland’s 2-1 win Sunday at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

COMING UP
FRIDAY: Worcester Sharks at Pirates, 7:05 p.m.
SATURDAY: Pirates at Manchester Monarchs, 7:05 p.m.

This time, the Pirates outlasted Springfield to pull out a 2-1 victory in an AHL game played before 3,118 fans at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

It was a big win for the Pirates, who had lost to the Atlantic Division-leading Falcons in two previous games.

"We did a better job of keeping the other team on the outside," Pirates center Andrew Ebbett said. "They were not getting the quality chances from the slot like they were the last couple of weekends."

A week of practice enabled the Pirates to avoid the defensive lapses this weekend that plagued them during the first two weeks of the season.

"We had five days in between games," Ebbett said. "We came back as a different team this weekend."

The Pirates were 4-3 shootout winners against Manchester on Saturday night.

Sunday, Portland limited Springfield to a total of 14 shots during the last two periods of regulation and overtime.

The Falcons held a 14-7 edge in shots during the first period, but eight of them came during power plays.

After stopping 27 of 28 shots during regulation and overtime, Mike McKenna, in his second consecutive start, stopped all five attempts during the shootout.

"All of the credit goes to our goalie," Ebbett said. "(McKenna) was 10 for 10 this weekend. He did a good job. He knows what he's doing on those shootouts."

Ebbett secured the win by lifting a backhander past Springfield goalie Jeff Deslauriers, who came into game leading the AHL with four wins.

"Their goalie did a good job (Sunday) stopping stuff," said Ebbett, the only player to score during the shootout. "He was really good down low. I was leading off, so I thought I would get something up high and see what happens."

The Falcons snapped a scoreless tie 8:02 into the third period when rookie center Fredrik Johansson finished off a three-on- two rush with his first goal.

With 7:06 left as a Portland power play was ending, Petteri Wirtanen, a second-year center from Finland, jammed in a rebound during a scrum to tie the score.

During the last three minutes of regulation, the Pirates had to kill off penalties, including a segment of 1 minute, 24 seconds, when the Falcons had a five-on three advantage.

"We are bunch that things don't come overly easy," Portland Coach Kevin Dineen said. "But if we work as hard as we did, I think good things come of it.

"There's a lot of things we can work on, but we're not going to fault the effort," he said. "That was a very effort-oriented hockey game."

NOTES: Sean Skehan, the Anaheim Ducks' strength and conditioning coach and a native of North Quincy, Mass., is spending a week with the Pirates.

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 725-8795 or at:
pbetit@pressherald.com