Thursday, February 15, 2007
UP NEXT
WHO: Portland Pirates at Philadelphia Phantoms
WHEN: 7:05 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Wachovia Spectrum
AND THEN...SUNDAY: Worcester Sharks at Pirates, 4:05 p.m.
WEDNESDAY: Pirates at Providence Bruins, 7:05 p.m.
NORFOLK, Va. - The only way the Portland Pirates and Norfolk Admirals can meet in the AHL playoffs would be in the Eastern Conference finals. The teams played a game worthy of the postseason Wednesday night and it was won by the Admirals 4-3 in a shootout at Scope Arena.
This one had offense, spectacular saves and even a nifty side story in Norfolk goalie Joel Martin, who made a hectic trip from Trenton, N.J., after the desperate Admirals lost both regular goalies to the flu.
Martin drove to Philadelphia on Wednesday morning and flew from there, arriving two hours before the game. Mark Bernard, the Admirals' assistant general manager, would have played otherwise.
Bernard, 37 and a former ECHL goaltender, took shots in warmups but wasn't needed, although the Pirates took a 2-0 lead after 13 minutes.
But Portland couldn't hold on, falling into a 3-3 tie with three minutes left in the third period and watching Martin stop four consecutive shooters in the shootout.
"Give that guy credit. He gets called up today and has himself a whale of a game," said Portland Coach Kevin Dineen, whose team next plays Friday at Philadelphia to conclude a five-game trip.
"But when a team is playing as well as Norfolk's been playing this year, getting three out of four points isn't a bad little swing through Virginia."
Portland opened the scoring in the seventh minute while enjoying a five-on-three power play. Mark Hartigan fired a wrist shot from the right circle and over Martin's glove at the near post.
Hartigan also scored Portland's second goal six minutes later. He stepped around a Norfolk defender in the high slot before using two players jousting atop the crease as a screen, again shooting over Martin's glove but this time from between the circles.
"We saw that skill set of his tonight," Dineen said of Hartigan, who arrived from Syracuse in a recent trade.
"He's so elusive when he has the puck on his stick that he's hard to track down, and he's got a powerful shot so it's no surprise he's at the 20-goal mark."
Norfolk, the AHL's overall leader, cut its deficit to 2-1 midway through the second period.
Kris Versteeg scooted down the right wing and held the puck a couple of seconds before passing off the side boards in Portland's end.
The feed found Carl Corazzini cutting across the top of the circles from the opposite wing. Corazzini, a former Boston University standout, ripped a wrist shot over Portland goalie Sebastien Caron's glove from 30 feet.
Portland answered two minutes later after Shane Endicott's soft shot from the right point bounced off defender Danny Richmond and landed on the edge of the left circle closest to Martin.
Martin dove across his crease but Aaron Rome swept the puck under him. Norfolk pulled within 3-2 with five minutes left in the second period, Adam Burish feeding Adam Berti from behind the net.
With three minutes left, Versteeg charged down the slot and redirected a feed past Caron.
"We looked like we were clinging on to that lead," Dineen said. "That's just a byproduct of having an up-and-down last month and a half.
"It came back and bit us in the last three minutes."
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Reader comments
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It was disheartening though to hear about the Admirals scoring 2 unanswered goals that brought them from a 3-1 lead to a 3-3 tie late in the third, but hopefully this will reinforce the fact that you have to play hard all 60 minutes, especially against a team as offensively talented as Norfolk.
Good showing by Mark Hartigan. 2 first-period goals are always a way to get into the fans good graces, and the fact that his tallies came through the passing of Joe Motzko shows that these two guys are still clicking even after being seperated from Syracuse.
I would have to say though that the night did belong to Joel Martin, especially when you look at the scoring sheet and realize that we were blanked for the final 32:21 of the contest as well as going 0-4 in the shootout.
All in all a good performance, and one that shouldn't discourage the hometown crew!
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