PORTLAND – The Portland Pirates scored all of their goals during a brief segment of the first period and held on for a 3-2 victory against the Connecticut Whale in the first game of their AHL playoff series Thursday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“It was a good way to start the playoffs,” said Portland forward Colin Stuart, who scored the winning goal. “We wanted to come out and have a nice start, set the tone and make them play our game.”

Additional Photos

Igor Gongaisky of the Pirates looks for a rebound as Whale goalie Dov Grumet-Morris stops a shot during the Pirates’3-2 victory Thursday night in Game 1 of their playoff series. Photos by John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Paul Byron of the Pirates handles the puck in front of Connecticut’s John Mitchell. Byron set up Portland’s first goal by Luke Adam at 13:47 of the first period.

Connecticut goalie Dov Grumet-Morris blocks a shot as the Whale’s Brodie Dupont, right, and Portland’s Dennis Persson look on during Portland’s 3-2 playoff win.

It was the Pirates’ first playoff win in nearly two years.

“I feel we tried to put together a team here that was high on character, high on understanding on what these kind of games are about,” Portland Coach Kevin Dineen said.

“We still have got a long way to go. We’ve got three more wins to take care of in this series.”

The Pirates, who ended the regular season by losing eight of their last 12 games, jumped off to their fastest start in more than a month. They scored three goals in less than three minutes to open up a commanding lead with less than four minutes left in the first period.

At 13:47, AHL rookie of the year Luke Adam, while standing next to the right post, forcefully swept the puck under the pads of goalie Dov Grumet-Morris for a power-play goal to open the scoring.

“(Paul Byron) made a great play down there trying to pass it to me, and I was trying to stuff it,” Adam said. “It hit the post and it squeaked in.”

Less than a minute later, Mark Voakes, who played 18 games for the Pirates toward the end of the season after spending most of the year with the ECHL’s Greenville Road Warriors, stole the puck inside the neutral zone to start a two-on-one break with rookie Corey Tropp, who scored on a low shot from inside the right circle.

With 3:20 left, Colin Stuart scored on a low, hard shot from near the left dot for another power-play goal.

Just like that, the Pirates held a 3-0 lead and the Whale were reeling. After Adam’s goal, Connecticut put only two shots on goal for the rest of the period.

“We compounded some of our problems by taking some penalties, too,” Connecticut Coach Ken Gernander said. “When things aren’t going your way, you definitely don’t want to play short-handed.

“We let them get too much momentum too soon and put ourselves in our own hole.”

A fluke goal by defenseman Blake Parlett early in the second period got the Whale back into the game.

Portland goalie David Leggio kept Parlett’s close-in shot from going into the left side of the net, but the rebound bounced back toward Parlett as he was falling to the ice and the puck went in off his right leg.

With less than seven minutes left in the third period, Dale Weiss pulled the Whale to within a goal when he sent in a rising shot from just above the right hash mark that went under the crossbar and settled into the left side of the net.

“I really liked our last 10 minutes of the hockey game,” Dineen said. “That’s playoff hockey where there’s grinding and we’re winning those little battles on the boards.

“Teammates start noticing the little things that go into the wins.”

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

pbetit@pressherald.com

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