Saturday, February 24, 2007
COMING UP
TODAY: Pirates at Albany River Rats, 7 p.m.
SUNDAY: Lowell Devils at Pirates, 4:05 p.m.
WORCESTER, Mass. - The Portland Pirates prevailed in a back-and-forth scoring duel against the Worcester Sharks Friday night, earning an important two points in the Atlantic Division battle for a postseason berth.
Joe Motzko scored twice, while Kent Huskins added a goal and an assist to pace the 5-3 victory.
"(Motzko's) a big-moment player," said Portland Coach Kevin Dineen. "He's a guy (who) recognizes the moment, when you need that offensive jump. He's done it time and time again for the past three weeks."
Pirates goaltender Sebastian Caron stopped 26 shots for his eighth win of the season.
The victory allowed the Pirates (25-21-2-7) to pull even with the Sharks (25-22-3-6) and the Lowell Devils (26-23-5-2) in a tie for fourth place in the AHL's Atlantic Division standings.
"That was a hard-fought game," said Dineen. "The thing just worked itself into a really gritty kind of a board battle, nasty little hockey game. Not that it was dirty, just hard battles all over the ice."
Huskins opened the scoring with a nifty move, cutting sharply to the middle of the ice, where he was able to split the defense and send a wrist shot past Worcester goalie Dimitri Patzold.
Worcester center Mike Iggulden tied the game with a power-play goal later in the period, reaching the 20-goal milestone for the Sharks.
After the Pirates killed off a major penalty for high sticking, Motzko wrestled the momentum back with his 18th goal of the year. It was an unspectacular shot from just inside the blue line that beat Patzold along the ice to the stick side.
Former Pirate Graham Mink got Worcester even once again. After a blistering slap shot from Tom Cavanagh, Mink swept the puck to the outside and wheeled to find a wide open net behind a sprawled Caron.
A Worcester roughing penalty at the end of the second period gave the Pirates a man advantage to start the third.
Portland capitalized with just one second left on the penalty, when Geoff Peters took a well-concealed pass from Matt Keith on the point and slid it easily past Patzold for a 3-2 lead.
Yet again the Sharks tied it, this time on a goal by Armstrong, who cut across the crease and muscled a backhander past Caron.
Before the partisan DCU Center crowd settled back in their seats, Motzko scored his second of the night, a quick wrist shot from deep in the slot to give Portland a 4-3 lead.
Simon Ferguson added an empty-net goal.
NOTES: The Anaheim Ducks traded Shane Endicott to the Dallas Stars for future considerations. Endicott had a goal and two assists for the Pirates in nine games since he joined the club in a deal with Nashville. The Pirates recalled forward Garett Bembridge from the Augusta Lynx of the ECHL to fill the roster spot. The AHL announced next year's All-Star game will be held in Binghamton, N.Y.
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To be quite honest I enjoy the shootout. While purists say the it takes the game out of the hands of the coach, I say that it gives players the last say in deciding a game.
Two teams with different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses can play a tied game due to strategies and schemes that stiffle one anothers strongpoints and eliminating their weaknesses. They play through regulation to a tie, and then play through the 4-on-4 overtime to a tie. At that point a coach has had his chance to influence the game in his team's favor, now it's up to the individual players. The true participants around which the whole game is based on.report abuse
And for the first time since the start of 2007 the Pirates are sitting in fourth place. It won't be an easy road though to catch up to Providence and Hartford, which is why it will be crucial to get as many points this weekend as possible. Albany is slumping and the Devils took a beating last night in a 6-1 loss to the Baby B's. A strong showing at the Pepsi Arena tonight and a divisional win tomorrow will help us make our climb in the Atlantic Division.
GO PIRATES!report abuse
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