HARTFORD, Conn. – Poor defense has plagued the Portland Pirates all season, and things didn’t change Friday night against the Connecticut Whale.

The Pirates allowed two power-play goals in a 5-1 loss before a crowd of 4,722 at the XL Center.

“I didn’t mind our first period,” Pirates Coach Ray Edwards said. “I thought defensively we were pretty good. We didn’t create a lot, but coming on the road, it was OK. Then we put the second goal (by defenseman Brendan Bell) in our own net, and then two high-offensive zone turnovers led to the third and fourth goals and put us really in trouble.

“But we didn’t have enough passion offensively to go to the net, pay a price and get their defense turned to create scoring chances. We’ve been trying to keep the puck out of our net, but we didn’t do it again.

“Defensively we’ve been horrible, just giving up too much.”

The Pirates have lost three in a row, 6 of 7 and 9 of 12 since a four-game winning streak in late January.

The Pirates, who have allowed the second-most goals in the league (181), were missing four of their top defensemen Friday night, including captain Dean Arsene. It forced them to sign defensemen Corey Syvret and Mark Louis, who made his pro debut.

The Whale took a 1-0 lead with 3:25 left in the first period on a five-on-three power-play goal by Andre Deveaux, who slammed in Mats Zuccarello’s goal-line pass off a setup by Tim Erixon.

“Two bad penalties, and you can’t give those guys a five-on-three,” Edwards said. “I thought we did really well killing it off for 45 seconds, but it’s playing two men down against those guys.”

The Whale made it 2-0 on their third power play thanks to a fortuitous bounce. Zuccarello’s pass off the left boards fell into the slot and found Bell, who half-whiffed on a backhander, but Evan Bloodoff inadvertently poked the puck into his own net at 4:04.

The Whale increased their lead off another unlucky bounce for the Pirates. Kelsey Tessier’s clearing pass hit Tyler Eckford in the neck, and as the defenseman lay on the ice in the neutral zone, Andreas Thuresson picked up a loose puck, broke in on a two-on-one and beat Justin Pogge high to the glove side at 7:59.

“I felt bad for (Eckford) because I was just trying to clear the zone,” Tessier said. “I went over and gave him a tap and was happy when he got right up.”

The Whale padded their lead when Chris McKelvie raced down left wing and fired a shot wide left, the carom going to Jordan Owens for a quick stuff into the right side of the net with 1:08 left.

Marc-Antoine Pouliot scored for the Pirates at 5:32 of the third.

Tessier answered at 16:15 for the Whale.

NOTE: Right wing Matt Watkins rejoined the Pirates after being assigned by the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday.

 

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