Rocco Grimaldi and Dylan Olsen returned to the Pirates this week after a stint in the NHL with the parent Florida Panthers, but Portland Coach Tom Rowe told them to take Tuesday night off.

“I felt the guys who helped us win both games in Bridgeport deserved to close out this three-game stretch with the Christmas holiday coming up,” Rowe said. “I told them nobody played bad enough to pull them out of the lineup, so I’m just going to stick with the same guys.”

Garrett Wilson celebrates after scoring a goal for the Portland Pirates, tying the game 2-2 and helping spark a comeback and a 4-2 win over Providence on Tuesday night. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Kyle Rau of Portland, right, tries to get past Tommy Cross of Providence during the second period of Tuesday night’s game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. The Pirates won the game, 4-2. Photos by Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Those same guys gave the Pirates a fifth straight victory Tuesday night, rallying from a third-period deficit to beat rival Providence 4-2 before a crowd of 3,519 at Cross Insurance Arena.

Brett Olson scored the winner on a rebound with less than six minutes remaining and added the clincher with an empty-netter from his own end moments after the Bruins pulled their goalie in favor of an extra attacker.

MacKenzie Weegar and Garrett Wilson also scored for the Pirates (15-11-1). Goalie Mike McKenna, fresh off the American Hockey League Player of the Week award, made 17 saves including two big ones early in the third period.

The Pirates also denied Providence on four power-play opportunities, including –with the score tied at 2 in the third – more than a minute of 5 on 3 in which the Bruins failed to even muster a shot.

“They’ve got some guys who can really do some damage,” Rowe said. “The fact that they never even got a shot was awesome for our guys. That won us the game.”

Olson broke the tie after following up a deep foray by Shane Harper, who finished with two assists to raise his team-leading total to 16. Kyle Rau got a stick on the puck before Olson knocked it in.

“We were just swarming the net and it came right to me,” Olson said. “Just a good play overall by Harper, and Rau got a touch on it, too, when it kicked back out before it came to me.”

The Pirates fell behind 2-1 seven minutes into the third when Andrew

Cherniwchan scored from close range. Wilson, bearing down from the left side, tied it 41 seconds later by redirecting an intentionally wide slap shot from Weegar.

“Those are plays you can’t teach,” Rowe said. “You have to have the skill and the hockey sense to make them. It was a great play by the two of them.”

Weegar had given the Pirates a 1-0 lead barely a minute into the contest when he intercepted an attempted clearing pass near the top of the slot and blasted the puck inside the left post.

Providence tied it midway through the period on a goal from Brandon DeFazio.

The score remained tied at 1 into the third despite a 14-3 shot advantage for the Pirates in the second, during which Providence had the only power play but again failed to muster a shot on goal.

Portland’s recent stretch started with an improbable buzzer-beating shot from Rob Schremp that gave the Pirates a 3-2 overtime victory 10 days earlier against the Bruins on this same ice.

“Anytime you have a big momentum swing like that, especially for the game-winner at the end, it brings up the team morale and gets that tide flowing,” Olson said. “If you can (latch) on to it, you can go on a roll. Fortunately, that’s what happened for us.”

After a four-day holiday break, the Pirates hit the road for two games after Christmas before returning home for a New Year’s Eve rematch with Providence.

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