Pirates ground Falcons

Mark Parrish recorded his second straight four-point game with a pair of goals and assists and Mark Voakes scored a goal and an assist in his American Hockey League debut to lead the Portland Pirates to a 6-1 victory over the Springfield Falcons in an American Hockey League game played today in front of 4,034 at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Maxime Legault, Jacob Lagace, and Igor Gongalsky also notched goals for the Pirates and Luke Adam and Marc-Andre Gragnani each recorded a pair of assists as Portland improved their record to 37-17-5-2 with their third straight win. With the victory, the Pirates improved their American Hockey League best home record to 21-4-4-1 and moved within two points of the division leading Manchester Monarchs, who lost earlier in the day to the Charlotte Checkers by a 3-2 margin.

Ben Guite scored the lone Springfield goal as the Falcons lost their fourth straight and fell to 30-29-2-3 on the season.

The Pirates offense picked up where it left off on Saturday night, establishing a three-goal lead in the first period. Voakes got Portland on the board first with his first career AHL goal at 6:11, and Legault notched his 12th tally of the season with just under six minutes remaining for a quick 2-0 advantage. Lagace scored at 18:45, capitalizing on a feed from Voakes and Dennis McCauley, to close out the first period scoring. Springfield goaltender Gustaf Wesslau settled down and held the Pirates at bay for most of the second period, until Parrish sent home his 10th goal of the season on the game’s first power play at 18:49. Parrish scored his second of the night only 1:04 into the final period, and Guite would follow three minutes later with the only Falcons goal of the night. In the final minute with 18 seconds left, Gongalsky broke his 17-game goal drought with his fourth of the season to set the final margin.

The Falcons out-shot the Pirates 36-21 as David Leggio won his eighth straight decision, improving his record to 17-4-0 with 35 saves. Wesslau took the loss for Springfield as his record dropped to 12-14-1.

The Allied Home Mortgage Three Stars of the game were all from the Pirates: 1. Parrish, 2. Adam and 3. Leggio.

--PIRATES COMMUNICATIONS--