WORCESTER, Mass. – How lost were the Portland Pirates over the weekend?

They were so lost they couldn’t have found a victory even with the latest GPS mounted on their bench.

Worcester capped arguably Portland’s worst weekend of the season on Sunday by blanking the Pirates 5-0, with rookie Harri Sateri (25 saves) posting his first shutout.

The Pirates have lost three in a row and have been outscored 13-1. They haven’t scored in 138 minutes, 23 seconds — going back to a third-period goal in Friday night’s 4-1 loss to Providence. Portland was beaten 4-0 by Bridgeport on Saturday.

“I never would have foreseen a weekend like this after coming back from the holiday playing the way we were playing,” Coach Ray Edwards said. “It’s very disappointing.”

What was extremely disappointing was Portland’s inefficiency on the power play — ending the weekend 1 for 17.

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“I was telling the guys we had scored (power-play goals) in eight games in a row and missed one, and then scored three against Connecticut to beat them,” Edwards said. “We didn’t have a sniff (this weekend) on the power play.

“We’ll be addressing it this week.”

Edwards will address one point in particular when it comes to Portland’s lackluster power play.

“It’s too perimeter,” he said. “Our offensive game is perimeter. There isn’t any willingness to go to the net, to take the puck to the net, pay a price at the net, put pucks at the net, attack the net.”

Other than that

“It’s just hard hockey,” Edwards said. “They know it. They’ve done it before. It’s not like it’s a big secret that everyone has to do those things. It’s just a willingness to do those things.

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“You have to be willing to pay a price and, obviously, we didn’t pay a price this weekend.”

Brodie Reid scored the first of his two goals on a power play at 6:49 of the first.

John McCarthy made it 2-0 at 15:12 of the second on a one-timer, and Reid added his second power-play goal at 17:55.

Mike Connolly finished a two-on-one at 13:54 of the third, and James Livingston ended the scoring at 18:18.

“When goalies sense that we’re having a hard time scoring, it definitely puts pressure on them,” Edwards said.

“But every once in a while you need a goalie to stand on his head for you. That’s something we may need down the stretch to get going.”

 


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