MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Pirates recovered from two quick and early Monarch goals.
They were unable to survive a pair of even quicker Manchester goals late in the second period.
As a result, the Manchester Monarchs knocked off the Portland Pirates 5-4 in another first-place duel between the two chief contenders for first place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division.
“We’ve got games in hand, but when you match up against a team, that’s when you want to take advantage,” said Portland Coach Kevin Dineen.
Thanks in large part to a couple of breakdowns late in the second period, the Pirates were unable to Saturday. Manchester improved to 34-17-2-5 and stretched its first-place edge over Portland to three points.
The Pirates fell to 33-16-4-2 and, coupled with Friday’s 4-3 shootout loss at Providence, went consecutive games without a win for the first time since Jan. 2.
Portland will have four games in hand after Manchester plays at Bridgeport this afternoon and gets one of them back in a Presidents Day matinee at 1 p.m. against Connecticut at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
The Monarchs grabbed a 2-0 lead before the game was four minutes old, and Luke Adam answered with a couple of scores.
Manchester, powered by a pair of four-on-four goals within 35 seconds in the second period, took a 5-3 lead.
“We collapsed for a few seconds and it cost us the game,” Adam said. “We had some bad reads, some bad positioning. Our defensive zone coverage wasn’t good on the four-on-four. They’ve got a lot of skilled players on that team and they took advantage.”
The Pirates’ problems started while they were on the power play. A hooking call on defenseman T.J. Brennan ended the Portland advantage and evened up the sides to four on four. In short order, Monarch defender Andrew Campbell scored his first goal of the season.
That was it for goalie David Leggio (16 saves, four goals allowed) as Jhonas Enroth (12 saves, one goal) came on in relief.
Bud Holloway welcomed him with a goal 35 seconds later and Manchester led, 5-3.
“That was a tough shift,” Dineen said. “We battled back and fought hard to tie it and all of a sudden it’s a two-goal game again.”
Brennan scored an extra-attacker goal with 39.2 seconds left after Portland pulled its goalie, but that was as close as the Pirates got.
Manchester’s David Kolomaitis opened the scoring 2:21 into the game and Dwight King doubled the lead at the 3:54 mark.
Adam responded with his 16th of the season at 9:03 and his 17th at 14:56.
“He played a heck of a game, a super game,” Dineen said.
Adam improved his numbers to six goals and four assists for 10 points in six games against Manchester.
Jacob Lagace, converting a nice feed from Dennis McCauley from behind the red line, put Portland in front 3-2 at 4:49 of the second period.
That lead lasted all of 43 seconds.
Manchester’s Richard Clune came down the left side and blasted a shot from near the left faceoff circle that beat Leggio to the far side.
Before long, the Monarchs struck again.
“My goaltender struggled early, which is disappointing for us because goaltending’s been a strength of ours,” Dineen said. “And that’s what you’re looking for in these big games.”
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