– RON CHIMELIS
Special to the Press Herald
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The game started out well for the Portland Pirates, but the ending was a far different story.
Leading by two goals in the second period, the Pirates had no answers for a third-period Springfield onslaught that gave the Falcons a 6-2 victory.
“We had a pretty solid start. We were pretty dominant in the early minutes, but we have to react to success as well as adversity,” Pirates Coach Kevin Dineen said.
Portland had a 2-0 goal lead late in the second period. The Falcons, though, were relentless during a five-goal third period.
“They put pressure on us, and we didn’t respond — from our goaltending to our defense to our forwards (not) helping out, in that order,” Dineen said.
The Pirates are 5-0 at home but 0-2 on the road. The other loss was Sunday at Bridgeport.
Dineen thought the Pirates were better prepared to grab a win in this one. For 35 minutes, it looked like they would.
But Springfield scored six goals in the last 25 minutes, leaving Portland still in search of its first road victory. After playing Bridgeport at home Saturday night, the Pirates begin a four-game Southern trip — two games each at Norfolk and Charlotte.
Friday’s loss started out with great promise. The Pirates did not allow a shot on goal for the first 12 minutes of a scoreless first period, then seized a two-goal lead in the second.
Mark Parrish’s power-play goal was one of two unassisted Portland goals in a four-minute stretch. It snapped a season-opening, 2-for-38 Pirates’ slump on the power play.
They entered Friday with the most power-play opportunities (37) in the AHL, but their 5.4 percent success rate ranked 27th in the 30-team league.
Parrish ended the skid at 6:35 of the second period when he broke down the right side and rifled a 20-footer into the upper far corner.
His second goal of the season came after Springfield began killing off the second of back-to-back penalties. The Falcons were caught up ice after being thwarted on a short-handed scoring bid, and Parrish took advantage.
Dineen took little consolation in the awakening of the power play.
“the end of this one, that was pretty insignificant,” he said.
Colin Stuart made it 2-0 at 10:50, picking off an errant Falcons pass and firing a shot past goalie David LeNeveu.
The even-strength goal was Stuart’s second of the season, but it went downhill for the Pirates from there.
The Falcons got one back on Michael Blunden’s power-play goal at 15:30 of the second, then tied it on Tomas Kubalik’s goal 5:20 into the third. The puck appeared to deflect off Kubalik’s body after a save by Jhonas Enroth, and it popped over Enroth’s shoulder and bounced over the goal line.
Chris Francis scored the tiebreaking goal at 8:02. He took a centering pass from former UMaine player Ben Guite and shot the puck past Enroth.
Like his team, Enroth started out solidly but could not keep it up. Springfield scored five goals on 12 shots in the third period, with defensive breakdowns playing a part.
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