Portland Pirates Season Ends To Monarchs 3 Games To 2
Photo from Bruce Taylor/Union Leader
Portland Pirates Second Period Rally Not Enough To Defeat Monarchs
The Pirates fought valiantly to recover from a 3-0 deficit, but in the end the Manchester Monarachs came out on top 5-3. In this the decisive game five, the Monarchs proved to be too much to handle for the eighth seed Pirates. A bad trend, which prevailed in the first two games of allowing a strong team like Manchester to take an early lead, decided the Portland Pirates plight in this season ending game.
They gave up two first period goals one early, one late, to put themselves in a hole. They then proceeded to fall behind by three goals at 3:34 of the second stanza on a power play goal by James Weal. The Portland Pirates Henrik Samuelsson was serving a five- minute major for charging, and it was not a smart penalty to take.
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This is one area of Samuelsson’s game which must improve if he expects to succeed at the NHL level. In a deciding playoff game, you just can’t lose your cool and get a major penalty. This goal broke the back of the Pirates, even though they fought back to score three consecutive goals to tie the game in the second period.
Henrik Samuelsson attempted to redeem himself by scoring a power play goal of his own at 12:33, followed by another power play goal by Tyler Gaudet at 16:13. Both goals were assisted by Brandon Gormley, who had an excellent showing in this series.
The Portland Pirates made it interesting when Brendan Shinnimin tied the game 3-3 with just a half tick on the clock.
In the end, the bad habit of allowing the Mighty Monarchs to score early, and bunch goals together was their downfall once again. In the final period they allowed a quick goal at 1:16, and then again twenty seconds later, ending the season for the Arizona Coyotes affiliate.
Both teams are changing their affiliation next season in the AHL. Manchester, who is the L.A. Kings affiliate, will be moving to Ontario, California next season. The Portland Pirates will be changing their affiliation to the Florida Panthers. The Arizona Coyotes are shifting their AHL affiliation to the Springfield Falcons, so this was the farewell season for the connection between the two organizations.
Next: Arizona Coyotes Captions 2014-2015 Season
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