WORCESTER, Mass. — Frustration seemingly occupies a seat on the bench these days with the Portland Pirates.
Just ask Mark Mancari.
After Worcester scuttled the Pirates 6-4 on Sunday, Portland is 1-4-0-1 in its last five games and has been outscored 24-15 during this stretch.
“It is so frustrating,” Mancari said. “You sit out there and watch it and you’re a part of it. You’re on the ice for this or that and things aren’t happening.
“It’s just disappointing. We have such a good hockey team and we have so many good players. To come out and start flat like we have been, I think that’s our major concern.”
Good point.
In this game, for example, Worcester built a 3-0 lead after one period and went ahead 4-0 before Derek Whitmore scored at 16:38 of the second.
Too little, too late.
“If you start the way we did, you’re going to be behind all night,” Coach Kevin Dineen said. “It wasn’t any different than in Manchester last week (the Monarchs won, 6-1). We’re getting behind the 8 ball and not starting properly and it’s affecting our game.
“We’re playing catch-up hockey. When you’re playing catch-up you end up looking like you’re trying hard near the end of the game. But it’s a 60-minute game.”
The obvious question is why — as in why are the Pirates stepping on the ice like they’re in a trance?
“You have to learn to play the same way on the road as you do at home and come with the same kind of intensity that we’ve shown on a consistent basis at home,” Dineen said. “We’re not consistently showing that on the road.”
Worcester’s Kevin Henderson delivered an early indication of things to come.
After Henderson stripped the puck from a Pirate, he fed Andrew Desjardins who in turn passed to Henderson for a tap-in 68 seconds after the opening faceoff.
T.J. Trevelyan scored on a wrap-around at 12:24 and Cam McIntyre lifted in a backhander at 17:27 — which chased Dave Leggio (who allowed three goals on 14 shots) in favor of Jhonas Enroth.
Enroth didn’t fare any better, as he allowed three goals on nine shots.
“There are systems that are played throughout by your goaltenders to your defense to your forwards and we were out of sync today,” Dineen said. “It showed in our play.
“We played a tired brand of hockey this weekend where every mistake ended up in our net.”
Portland’s third-period goals came off the sticks of Mancari, Nick Crawford (a short-handed goal) and Corey Tropp. But all they did was make the final score closer than the way the game played.
“You can’t start and not play for 10 minutes and get down three or four goals and turn it on for 40 minutes,” Mancari said. “It’s not going to work that way.”
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