FALCONS FALL SHORT TO PIRATES 6-4
April 5, 2009 - The Springfield Falcons lost to the Portland Pirates 6-4 on Sunday afternoon at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine.
The Falcons opened the scoring at 8:22 of the first period when Ryan Potulny converted on the power play, his 35th marker of the year. With the goal, Potulny is now second for most goals in a season by a Falcons player, four goals behind John LeBlanc for the Falcons' record for markers in a year with 39.
At 11:32 of the opening frame, Nathan Gerbe tied the score at 1-1 with his 27th goal on the campaign. The Pirates took their first lead of the night at 16:23 of the first period when Tim Kennedy tallied his 18th marker of the year, but Colin McDonald evened the score at 2-2 with 22-seconds remaining in the opening session.
In the second period, Mark Mancari gave Portland a 3-2 advantage when he converted on the power play at 7:50, but Springfield battled right back when Bryan Young scored his third marker of the year at 13:27 evening the score at 3-3. All three of Young's goals have come against Portland this year.
With the game deadlocked in the third period, Portland regained their advantage when Colin Murphy tallied his 12th of the year at 5:00, followed by Mathieu Darche giving Portland a 5-3 lead at 12:25 of the final frame with a shorthanded goal. The Falcons pulled back within a single goal at 5-4 when Mike Gabinet converted at the 14:00 mark of the final period, but Darche added an empty net goal with less than a minute remaining in regulation time.
PRE-GAME TIDBITS
The Falcons arrived in Portland on Saturday night after their game in Lowell, but on Sunday morning, the team received an unexpected wake-up call when a fire alarm went off at the team hotel around 9:30 am. The good news from the incident was the fact that it was pretty much the time guys were getting up for the team meal anyways.
FALCONS LINEUP
Stone - Potulny - Eberle
Linglet - Schremp - Willis
Lefebvre - O'Marra - McDonald
Benson - Urquhart - Trukhno
Bina - Gabinet
Young - Stamoulis
Wild - Kinley
Sabourin
Dubnyk
FALCONS SCRATCHES - Jake Taylor (Injured), Bryan Lerg (Injured), Tim Sestito (Injured), Jeff Lee (Healthy), Tyler Spurgeon (Injured), Stephane Goulet (Injured), Gilbert Brule (Injured), Geoff Paukovich (Injured), Milan Maslonka (Healthy), Mathieu Roy (Injured)
