FALCONS FALL TO PIRATES 5-2
January 10, 2009 - The Springfield Falcons lost to the Portland Pirates 5-2 on Saturday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. Marek Zagrapan opened the scoring at 5:31 of the first period with his 11th goal of the year, followed by Portland's Zach Tarkir expanding the Pirates' advantage to 2-0 at 18:41 of the opening frame.
In the second period, Portland expanded their lead to 3-0 when Mathieu Darche converted on the power play at 12:10, followed by Zagrapan's second marker of the night at 16:57 of the middle frame giving the Pirates a 4-0 lead. Springfield cut their deficit to 4-1 at 17:21 of the second period when Taylor Chorney scored his third goal of the year.
In the third period, Patrick Bordeleau pulled the Falcons to within two goals when he converted on the power play at 7:58, but Portland would add an empty netter.
FALCONS LINEUP
Lefebvre - Potulny - Schremp
Lerg - Spurgeon - Corazzini
Bekar - Sestito - Bordeleau
Goulet - Paukovich - McDonald
Young - Roy
Peckham - Wild
Gabinet - Chorney
Deslauriers
Dubnyk
FALCONS SCRATCHES - Jake Taylor (Injured), Adam Huxley (Healthy), Viacheslav Trukhno (Injured), Sebastien Bisaillon (Healthy), Ryan O'Marra (Healthy), Josef Hrabal (Healthy), Hans Benson (Injured)
PRE-GAME NOTES
Saturday will be Springfield's fifth head-to-head match-up against the Pirates this season with the Falcons posting a record of 1-2-0-1 against the Pirates this season, including 0-1-0-1 at Portland. The Falcons lost to the Pirates by a score of 4-1 in the most recent contest between these two teams last Sunday. Two of the four games between these two divisional rivals this year have gone to a shootout, while three of the four have been one-goal games.
Ryan Potulny leads Springfield in scoring against Portland with three assists in four games. Colin McDonald's two goals ranks first on the team in goals against Portland, while goaltender Devan Dubnyk has a 2.18 goals against average and .929 save percentage in four games against Portland this year.
Rookie Nathan Gerbe has been red-hot against Springfield this year with four goals and one assist for five points in four games. Marc-Andre Gragnani is tied with Gerbe for the club lead in points against the Falcons with five (1g, 4a).
Stay tuned for tonight's lineup....
