PORTLAND – Portland Pirates center Mark Voakes, who assisted on two goals in Thursday night’s 3-2 playoff win against the Connecticut Whale, actually got the postseason jump on his teammates.

Voakes spent four days last week with the ECHL’s Greenville Road Warriors and helped them win the first two games of their best-of-five series against the Elmira Jackals in the Kelly Cup playoffs.

“It was good to get a little bit of the start in the playoffs last week and help the Greenville boys out,” he said. “But I’m excited to be back here. Starting the playoffs all over again was a lot of fun.”

DURING THE AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs, the outcome of tied games will be decided in a different manner than during the regular season.

In the regular season, teams played a five-minute overtime, with four skaters and a goalie on the ice for each team to snap tied scores. If the game was tied after the OT session, a shootout was used to determine the outcome, with five players from each team going one on one with the opposing goalie.

During the playoffs, teams will play full 20-minute overtime periods until a winner is decided.

THE PIRATES’ last playoff victory took place on April 15, 2009, when they beat the Providence Bruins 3-0 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Game 1 of the Atlantic Division semifinals.

Providence won the next four games to win that series.

Last year, the Manchester Monarchs swept four games in their opening-round series against Portland.

AMONG THE scouts attending the game was Kevin Stevens, a veteran of 15 NHL seasons and a member of Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1991 and 1992.

THE WHALE wore their green jerseys rather than the blue jerseys they normally wear on the road.

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

pbetit@pressherald.com

 

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