The sombrero was black and silver, and felt mighty comfortable on the head of Greg McKegg.

“I wanted to keep that,” McKegg said after turning a hat trick Friday night and briefly modeling an offering from a fan. “But I had to give it back.”

McKegg’s three goals led the Pirates to a 4-2 come-from-behind victory over the Albany Devils in an American Hockey League game before a crowd of 2,034 at Cross Insurance Arena.

The Pirates (3-1) trailed by two at the first intermission before scoring twice in the second to tie and twice more in the third to remain perfect in three home games.

“It was a bit of a wake-up call,” McKegg said of the early deficit. “Definitely a slow start for us. But it was a good second period and we built off it.”

McKegg scored the tying goal late in the second and added the winner in the first minute of the third on a shot from the slot after a feed from the right side by Rocco Grimaldi.

With the Albany net unguarded in the final minute, McKegg scored the clincher on a shot from just inside the blue line after a pass from Wayne Simpson.

“To fall behind 2-0 sometimes can be discouraging,” said Pirates assistant coach Scott Allen. “It was a real good test for us to judge the character of our team and we like the way we responded.”

The Pirates killed off five Albany power plays, including two while nursing a one-goal lead in the third. During one extended stretch on the first of those, Kyle Rau blocked a shot with his arm, another with his leg and a third with his shin pad before hobbling off to an enthusiastic reception.

“All his teammates were going crazy when he came back to the bench,” Allen said.

“It was awesome to see that,” McKegg said. “It fired the guys up and carried us through the end of the game.”

Mike McKenna finished with 26 saves for the Pirates, who hopped on a bus to upstate New York after the game for a rematch with Albany late Saturday afternoon.

Paul Thompson and Blake Pietila put Albany ahead 2-0 in the first period but the Pirates, who have outscored opponents 11-3 in the middle period, cut the margin in half late in the second when John McFarland poked a MacKenzie Weegar rebound just under the glove of Albany goaltender Doug Carr.

Three minutes later, McKegg took a pass from Garrett Wilson and skated in from the left boards to the bottom of the left circle with Grimaldi bearing down in the slot. Instead of passing, McKegg shot and scored.

“It looked like the goalie was cheating (toward Grimaldi),” McKegg said. “He was leaning over a bit. I just tried to put it up top and was lucky enough that it went in.”

After games in Albany on Saturday and at Providence on Friday night, the Pirates return to Portland for a Halloween matinee against Rochester.

“Teams shouldn’t have to come into your building and wake you up, but that was the case,” Allen said of Portland’s slow start. “We’re still very much a work in progress but we found a way to get it done.”

Hats off to that.

 

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