The Portland Pirates enter the final weekend of the AHL regular season trying to secure a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs.

Thanks to a seven-game losing streak, the Pirates have been unable to shake the Springfield Falcons and remain tied for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff berth at 83 points.

Philip Samuelsson of the Pirates tries to keep the puck away from Dominik Uher of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during Portland’s 3-1 loss Sunday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

THREE LEFT

FRIDAY

at Manchester, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY

vs. Providence, 7 p.m.

SUNDAY

at Worcester, 3 p.m.

“At the end of the day, we still control our own destiny,” said center Brendan Shinnimin. “It’s not like we need other teams to beat other teams for us to get in. If we win our games and take care of our business, we’ll be in.”

The Pirates play three games this weekend: at Manchester on Friday night, at home versus Providence on Saturday night, and at Worcester for the regular-season finale Sunday afternoon.

Springfield, meanwhile, wraps up its schedule with games Friday and Saturday nights in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

All three of the Pirates’ opponents are ahead of them in the conference standings, with Manchester having clinched the No. 1 playoff seed. St. John’s is no longer in contention.

The Pirates will play without center Jordan Martinook for the remainder of the season. Martinook suffered an injury to his left leg in a collision with former Pirate Paul Bissonnette last Friday at Manchester.

Martinook had been centering Portland’s top line with Alexandre Bolduc and Henrik Samuelsson, who returned to the Pirates this week after a call-up to the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes.

Now that the Coyotes’ season is over, they returned Samuelsson to the Pirates on Tuesday along with goaltender Louis Domingue, winger Jordan Szwarz and defenseman Klas Dahlbeck.

The Pirates made three more roster moves Wednesday, releasing center Corey Trivino, recalling goalie Mike Lee from the ECHL Gwinnett Gladiators and signing 19-year-old center Ryan MacInnis to an Amateur Tryout Contract.

MacInnis, the son of former NHL All-Star defenseman Al MacInnis, is a 2014 second-round draft pick of the Coyotes who had 27 goals and 37 assists in 67 regular-season games with Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League this season and remains eligible to play major junior hockey next season.

“Those guys will help us out,” Shinnimin said. “But we’ve got to regroup this week and take a good look at ourselves and fix this problem pretty quick or else it’s going to be a pretty disappointing end to the year.”

Should Portland and Springfield remained tied in points through Sunday, the Pirates would advance because of the first tie-breaking procedure: total victories excluding shootouts. Although each team entered the weekend having won 37 games, Springfield won five times in a shootout and the Pirates only twice, giving them 35 non-shootout victories to 32 for the Falcons.

Coach Ray Edwards is more concerned with re-establishing Portland’s identity as a cohesive, opportunistic and disciplined team.

“That’s what Friday needs to be about,” he said. “Get our game to where it needs to be.”

To be fair, Portland’s recent struggles have come against the cream of the conference. The Pirates have lost 10 of 12 against the likes of Manchester, Hershey, Wilkes-Barre and Providence.

“It’s been a tough grind for us,” Edwards said. “We’ve been playing really good teams and so our margin for error is minimal. We’re on the wrong side of it. We’ve had some good efforts against them, but we haven’t found a way to win. That’s the challenging part right now.”

A chance remains for the Pirates to earn the seventh seed. Worcester currently occupies that slot, three points ahead of Portland, and plays Providence Friday and Manchester Saturday before hosting the Pirates.

“We just have to calm down and find a way to stay even-keeled throughout this last (weekend),” Shinnimin said, “and finish off with a good three games and get into the playoffs.”

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