FALCONS BREAK STREAK, WIN 6-3 OVER PIRATES
February 17, 2009 – With a 16-30-6-2 record and carrying an 11 game winless streak heading into Tuesday night's matchup with the high-powered Portland Pirates, the Springfield Falcons were looking for something positive to happen to build on for the remaining 26 games of the season.
FALCONS AUDIO - Rob Daum Talks About The Win
Young's goal, the eventual game winner, came with two minutes remaining in the second period. Tyler Spurgeon won an offensive zone faceoff cleanly back to Young, who fired a low wrist shot on net and through Jhonas Enroth's legs to put the Falcons up for good on the Pirates.
Portland opened the scoring in an action packed first period, connecting on a 2-on-1 opportunity early. Mathieu Darche recorded his 17th goal of the season on a nice feed from Mike Kostka to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.
Springfield answered quickly to tie the game on a Taylor Chorney blast from 60 feet out that beat Portland's Enroth high to the glove side. The goal, Chorney's fourth of the season, was assisted by Colin McDonald and Cody Wild.
Portland roared right back to take the lead again 30 seconds later. Paul Baier received a pass from Mike Weber in open ice to the left of Falcons goalie Dany Sabourin and slipped a wrist shot under Sabourin's arm for his third goal on the season and a Portland 2-1 lead.
Back came Springfield, this time on the strength of a spectacular singular effort by Ryan Stone, who carried the puck through Portland's defense and deked Enroth before slipping a backhand under the sprawling goalie's glove to knot the game at two goals apiece. Stone's goal, his 12th, wouldn't be his last point of the night.
Only three minutes later, Stone found himself behind Portland's net after a missed 2-on-1 by the Falcons. With defenders closing, he slipped a pass to Geoff Paukovich on the goal line. Paukovich slapped the shot home just before Enroth could react to give the Falcons the lead for the first time in the contest.
The penalty-free, six goal period ended tied up at three after a nifty pass by Kostka found Aaron Slattengren alone in the slot for a one-touch shot that slipped past Sabourin to knot the game up and close out a wild first frame.
Up 4-3 in the third period on Young's goal, Sebastien Bisaillon wristed a long shot in on Enroth. Before reaching the net, the puck deflected off a Portland defenseman and past the leaning goaltender to add insurance to the Falcons' lead. McDonald added an empty-net goal to close out the game for his sixth tally of the year.
Springfield's Sabourin recovered brilliantly to shut down Portland for the rest of the game and record a 32 save victory, his first with the Falcons in four starts. He was especially sharp in the second period, denying three Portland power play opportunities to keep the game close.
FALCONS LINEUP
Schremp - O'Marra - Corazzini
Sestito - Spurgeon - McDonald
Stone - Paukovich - Willis
Trukhno - Potulny - Jaques
Bisaillon - Gabinet
Chorney - Wild
Young - Roy
Sabourin
Dubnyk
FALCONS SCRATCHES
Healthy- Rob Bina, Bryan Lerg, Stephane Goulet, Hans Benson.
Injured- Jake Taylor, Guillaume Lefebvre, Gilbert Brule.
THREE STARS
1) Bryan Young (Springfield) - 1 Goal (GWG)
2) Ryan Stone (Springfield) - 1 Goal, 1 Assist
3) Shane Willis (Springfield) - 2 Assists
GAME NOTES
Dany Sabourin also recorded an assist in the game on Colin McDonald's empty net goal in the third period.
Bryan Young hadn't scored a goal since the 2004-2005 season with Peterborough in the OHL.
GAME NIGHT NOTES………………
GAME SETUP: The Springfield Falcons and Portland Pirates meet for the seventh time this season when they get together on Tuesday night at the MassMutual Center starting at 7pm. This will be the third meeting in Springfield this year between the Falcons and Pirates with the two teams splitting the first two match-ups at The Nest. The Falcons were victories in the last meeting between these two teams back on January 11 with Springfield winning that game 4-1 in Portland.
Carl Corazzini leads Springfield in scoring against the Pirates this season with one goal and four assists for five points in six games played. Colin McDonald is second in scoring against the Pirates this year with two goals and two assists for four points. McDonald is also tied with Tyler Spurgeon and Taylor Chorney for the club lead in goals against Portland this year with two. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk has posted a record of 2-2-1 with a 1.85 goals against average and .941 save percentage in six appearances against Portland this year.
Portland’s Marc-Andre Gragnani is the Pirates’ active leader in scoring against the Falcons with one goal and four assists for five points in six games. Goaltender Jhonas Enroth is 2-0-1 with a 1.62 goals against average and .948 save percentage in three appearances against the Falcons this year.
The Falcons start a three-game home stand this week after recently concluding a four-game road trip. Springfield will host Portland tonight, Worcester on Friday and Bridgeport on Saturday.
The Pirates head into Springfield in second place in the Atlantic Division standings with a record of 28-20-1-5 good for 62 points, one point behind first place Providence. Portland has earned at least a point in the standings in six straight games going 3-0-0-3 in that span.
FALCONS GAME RECAPS: February 15, 2009 - The Springfield Falcons lost to the Toronto Marlies 3-1 on Sunday afternoon at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto. The Marlies took a 1-0 lead at 4:57 of the opening period when Jeremy Williams scored his 13th goal of the year.
The Falcons tied the score at 1-1 when J.F. Jacques converted on the power play at 7:02 of the first period. In the second period, Toronto's Jiri Tlusty gave the Marlies a 2-1 advantage at 17:04 with his 13th goal of the year. Darryl Boyce expanded Toronto's lead to 3-1 at 4:19 of the third period.
February 14, 2009 - The Springfield Falcons lost to the Syracuse Crunch 2-1 in a shootout on Saturday night in Syracuse, NY. Syracuse opened the scoring with four-seconds remaining in the first period when Aaron Rome scored during a five-on-three Crunch power play.
In the second period, the Falcons tied the score at 1-1 when Cody Wild converted on the power play midway through the middle frame, his second goal in as many nights.
After a scoreless third period and overtime, Syracuse's Mike York scored the only goal of the shootout giving the Crunch a 2-1 win. Falcons goaltender Dany Sabourin was very steady between the pipes stopping 40 of 42 shots and earning the game's third star.
February 13, 2009 - The Springfield Falcons lost to the Albany River Rats 5-4 on Friday night at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY. Albany built a 2-0 first period lead on goals from Dwight Helminen and Brett Carson. The Falcons cut their deficit to 2-1 just 1:25 into the second period when Slava Trukhno scored his fifth goal of the year set up by Gilbert Brule. The River Rats expanded their advantage to 3-1 at 10:08 of the middle period when Helminen scored his second marker of the contest.
Ryan Stone and Cody Wild scored goals for the Falcons in the third period evening the score at 3-3. With the game tied, Albany's Bobby Hughes gave the Rats a 4-3 lead at 17:42 of the final frame, followed by Mike Angelidis just one minute later putting Albany on top 5-3.
Rob Schremp added a goal for the Falcons with nine seconds remaining in regulation cutting Springfield's deficit to 5-4, but that was as close as the Falcons would get on this night. Friday night was the debut of new Falcons head coach Rob Daum.
