PORTLAND — The Portland Pirates still are unbeaten at the Cumberland County Civic Center, but they had to win a shootout Tuesday night to remain so.
Derek Whitmore scored the decisive goal in the ninth round of the shootout to lift the Pirates to a 3-2 win against the Manchester Monarchs before 2,194.
Portland has started the season by winning its five games at the Civic Center while losing at Bridgeport.
The Pirates looked liked they had won during regulation when they scored their first two power-play goals of the season six minutes into the third period to move into a 2-1 lead, but Brandon Kozun tipped in a shot with 14.9 seconds left to tie the score and send the game into overtime.
It was the third time this season Portland has surrendered a goal during the final 15 seconds.
“They took a good shot, and it was a good tip out front,” Portland Coach Kevin Dineen said. “It was a great play, and those things are going to happen.”
David Leggio, a former Clarkson goalie making his first start for the Pirates, preserved the tie by making six saves in overtime and preventing eight of Manchester’s nine shooters from scoring during the shootout.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Leggio,” Whitmore said. “He played awesome tonight. It was his first game with us, and he gave us a chance to win.”
Leggio, who served as the backup to Jhonas Enroth in the Pirates’ first five games, made 35 saves while making his first AHL start in three seasons.
“It feels really good to get in there and win and be able to contribute instead of just being the guy in practice and the cheerleader.”
The Monarchs’ Dwight King opened the scoring by sweeping a rebound into the right side of the net for his fourth goal after Leggio stopped defenseman Andrew Campbell’s close-in shot with less than five minutes left in the second period.
Rookie Luke Adam tied the score less than a minute into third period by putting in a rebound to end the Pirates’ 0-for-32 scoring drought with a man advantage. Portland was the last AHL team to score a power-play goal this season.
“I feel like it was my responsibility when we weren’t clicking,” Dineen said. “I gave them a lot of information, and we decided we were going to simplify things. We didn’t change our personnel. We had a couple of tweaks, here and there, but for the most part, we had the same players.”
Colin Stuart, who plays on the team’s second power-play unit, scored his first goal as a Pirate on a power play with less than 14 minutes left to make it 2-1.
“I’m a believer if you show confidence in guys, they’ll produce,” Dineen said. “I’m happy to see that they did tonight.”
Viatcheslav Voynov started the eighth round of the shootout by scoring for the Monarchs, but rookie Corey Tropp beat Jeff Zatloff to preserve the tie.
Earlier, Tropp got eight stitches to close a cut he suffered in a fight with Jordan Nolan.
Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at: pbetit@pressherald.com
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