Saturday, January 20, 2007
Staff photo by Doug Jones
Petteri Wirtanen of the Portland Pirates has his shot knocked away by Hartford goalie Al Montoya as Ivan Baranka challenges Friday night. Hartford won, 5-4.
Staff photo by Doug Jones
Matt Keith of the Portland Pirates looks to control the puck Friday night while defended by Bryce Lampman of the Hartford Wolf Pack in front of goalie Al Montoya.
TODAY'S GAME
WHO: Providence Bruins at Portland Pirates
WHEN: 7:05 p.m.
TELEVISION: Time Warner Channel 22
For only the third time this season, the Portland Pirates took a lead into the third period and didn't come out of it with a victory Friday night
The Hartford Wolf Pack maintained their mastery over the Pirates by scoring four goals in less than 17 minutes to rally to a 5-4 victory before 4,353 fans at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
"It was a weird game," said Hartford goalie Al Montoya, who stopped 21 of 25 shots to beat the Pirates for the third consecutive time, "Those are the ones you're glad are over with and you're glad you ended up on top."
It was the Wolf Pack's fifth win in six games against the Pirates, who suffered their third consecutive loss.
"We're overthinking, overworking and underperforming," Portland Coach Kevin Dineen said. "There's a lack of confidence and it's showing on the ice, showing on the scoreboard."
Since the start of the month, Portland has dropped from first place in the Atlantic Division into a tie with Providence for third.
"We had a solid start to the season, and the last month has been unacceptable from an individual standpoint and as a team," Dineen said.
The Pirates built a 3-1 lead before the Wolf Pack began their rally with less than five minutes left in the second period.
"You see signs of brilliance but we're not carrying it through for the full 60 minutes," said center Colby Genoway, who scored two goals in a game for the first time this season to help stake the Pirates to their early lead.
"We're playing maybe 30 minutes or less and you can't play games like that, especially in this league."
Hartford opened the scoring 12 seconds into the game when Nigel Dawes rifled a shot from the left hashmark inside the near post for his ninth goal after defenseman Daniel Girardi stole the puck outside the blue line and broke in on the right side.
At 11:15, Genoway made it 1-1 by sweeping in the puck from the middle of the slot to finish off a four-on-one break after Zenon Konopka stole the puck in the neutral zone.
Less than two minutes later, Tim Brent snapped the tie by putting in a shot from near the right hashmark for his ninth goal to finish off a breakaway set up by Matt Keith's outlet pass.
Less than two minutes into the second period, Genoway's wide-angled shot from the left corner deflected off a defender for his eighth goal of the season.
With 4:10 left in the second period while on the power play, defenseman Bryce Lampman began Hartford's comeback by directing a Dawes pass into the left side for his fourth goal of the season.
Lauri Korpikowski, Dave Liffiton and Jarrko Immonen scored goals as the Wolf Pack moved into a 5-3 lead less than 13 minutes into the third period.
With 5:39 left, Bjorn Melin put in a hard shot from the right faceoff circle for his eighth goal to complete the scoring.
NOTES: Tonight's Providence-Pirates game will be telecast on Time Warner Cable Channel 22. ... It's Salute to Motorsports night and doors to the game will open at 3 p.m. for a motorsports expo. ... Portland returned right wing Garett Bembridge to the Augusta Lynx of the ECHL. ... Darcy Verot, a former Pirate, is serving a three-game suspension for starting a brawl last Saturday night in Rochester.
Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 725-8795 or at:
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Reader comments
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We gotta stop giving up third period goals, because last night we allowed 4 unanswered goals (3 in the third) before we got a crunch-time goal that narrowed the gap to a goal and gave the impression that it was close...
It was good to see us break our streak of 6 games without a first period lamp lighter, and ending the first period with a lead as opposed to a deficit or a tie had to be a reason to keep our boys head held high...
But we have to play a 60-minute game tonight, play hard from end-to-end, and we can walk away with a win tonight.report abuse
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