Maine Hockey Journal

Pirates gain a point on improved effort

Jason Akeson tallied the game-winning goal and added an assist for the Rochester Americans en route to a 2-1 overtime victory over the Portland Pirates Friday evening in front of 7,154 at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York.

Akeson’s goal came at the 2:03 mark of overtime.

Akeson, who snapped a 13-game goal-scoring drought with the game-winning goal, beat Pirates’ goalie Sam Brittain with a backdoor play, redirecting a cross-ice feed from Cal O’Reilly on a two-on-one.

It’s only the second time this season the Pirates (6-2) have sustained a loss in overtime. Both losses have been on the road. The Pirates (29-19-2-0) nearly won it earlier in the overtime session as Rob Schremp beat Amerks’ goaltender Linus Ullmark between the legs, but the puck squirt across the crease to the other side and out of harm’s way.

Portland were looking for a better game than Wednesday’s effort in Utica where they suffered a 5-2 defeat to the Comets, their first loss on the season-long road trip.

“We had some point blank chances that we didn’t capitalize on, but after the other night in Utica we needed to respond and I thought we did that and we were one point away from victory,” said Pirates’ head coach Scott Allen.

The Pirates nearly earned both points playing with a shuffled roster. Pirates’ Captain Brent Regner and John McFarland were back with the team after they assigned earlier in the day by the NHL parent club, Florida Panthers to make room for Kyle Rau and Mike Matheson’s promotion to the NHL.

Both McFarland and Regner played Thursday at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, FL and were told of their demotion after the game. McFarland figured into the Pirates’ game-tying play in the second period.

McFarland, who was recalled by the Panthers on Feb. 12, appeared in three games, intercepted the puck along the near-side boards in the neutral zone and raced into the offensive dishing a backhand pass to Rob Schremp who completed the tic-tac-toe play to Corban Knight with 3:06 left in the second period.

McFarland has 14 goals, nine assists for 23 points with a plus-4 rating in 44 games which is one-point shy of his career-high 24 points in a season.

That’s what we expected out of them,” said Allen. “Sure, they’re certainly tired but Regner being the leader that he is, and Johnny was excited to get back and play some more minutes. Everybody wants to play in the NHL, but everything was positive with both of those guys and we’re certainly happy with their performance tonight.”

Tyler Sikura was making his third start for the Pirates and Derek Arnold, who was signed to a PTO by the team on Thursday, also made his debut with Portland.

The Pirates were also with Mike McKenna after he was sent home to be with his wife who is expecting the family’s second child any day. Brittain stepped up admirably making several saves in close as part of his 36-save performance. Colin Stevens was the back up for Portland after he was recalled from the Manchester Monarchs on Thursday.

It won’t get any easier for the Pirates who are in the midst of their longest road trip of the season. a seven-game, 12-day road trip. They left immediately after the game for Toronto where they have 1:30 pm Saturday matinee before making their way to Hartford, Connecticut for a game on Wednesday against the Hartford Wolf Pack to wrap up the road trip.

Toronto is currently the top team in the AHL with 82 points, 14 points better than the second best team in the league, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, who squandered a 2-0 lead in the third period to lose 4-2 for the Marlies.

“Fact of the matter is we are playing the best team in the league,” Allen said. “They are an offensive powerhouse, they have a big payroll and have some outstanding players.”

“If we can close out this leg of the trip at 4-1-1, we’ll take it,” added Allen. “It will be very difficult to do. We know we have our work cut out for us. It’s going to take everybody and another strong goaltending performance We’re certainly capable or we’d just hope on the bus and head back (home) if we didn’t think we could win.”

After a scoreless first period, Rochester opened the scoring early in the second period.

Akeson made a nifty pass from down low in corner to Daniel Catenacci for wrist shot from the right circle, beating Brittain through a screen over his glove to put the Amerks up 1-0.

“I liked the way we played,” Allen said. “We had scoring chances, but we didn’t score. All things considered with the lineup we had, with guys coming, guys going, I liked how we competed.”

NOTES: The Pirates were playing at the Blue Cross Arena for the first time in six years. The last time the Pirates played in Rochester was Feb. 20, 2010 during the Buffalo Sabres affiliation. Portland would lose 4-3 as Jhonas Enroth made 23 saves. TJ Brennan, who currently plays for the Marlies, recorded three assists and Philip Gogulla finished with two goals… Rob Flick and Shane Harper did not dress due to injuries. Both are listed day-to-day… Amerks Asst. Captain Matt Ellis spent parts of two seasons (2008-2010) with the Pirates, and was captain of the team during the 2009-10 season.

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