ALBANY, N.Y. — The Portland Pirates, who lost their first five road games this season, won their second straight away from home Saturday, beating the Albany Devils 2-1 in overtime at the Times-Union Center.

Lucas Lessio scored the winner 2:58 into overtime as Portland earned its third straight win and improved to 5-5.

“We had a good week,” Portland Coach Ray Edwards said. “It’s nice to get back to .500.”

Lessio, who missed a good chance to end the game in regulation, scored after he collected a pass from Brendan Shinnimin.

“Shimmer made a great play to force a turnover and he put the puck right on my tape,” Lessio said. “It was good to see the puck go in.”

It was Lessio’s fourth goal this season.

“We felt he could be an impact player in overtime with four-on-four play,” Edwards said. “He had a great game, and players who play well usually get rewarded.”

The defensive-minded Devils suffered their second straight loss after an unbeaten streak of seven games.

Albany possessed the puck for most of the first half of the game and made it difficult for the Pirates to mount an attack.

Despite their fast start, the Devils continue to have trouble drawing fans. An estimated 700 fans were in the building.

A hole in the ice behind the Pirates net forced the game to be delayed with 8:45 left in the first period. The teams went to their locker rooms, and the remaining time was tacked onto the second period after the ice was repaired.

The Devils took a 1-0 lead when Joel Whitney scored 1:28 into the game. No one picked up Whitney as he cut through the faceoff circle untouched. He took a quick feed from Paul Thompson and snapped a wrist shot over the oustretched glove of Pirates’ goalie Mike McKenna.

The break during the first period may have just been what the Pirates needed. They had trouble adjusting to the bad ice before the delay but came out much better when play resumed following the unexpected break.

“That was good for us and gave us a chance to regroup,” Edward said.

McKenna finished with 31 saves.

“One of the reasons we got Mike was to settle things down, and he was good,” Edwards said.

Dylan Reece scored a power-play goal at 10:57 of the second period to tie the game for Portland. He was stationed in the high slot, where he sent a low shot through a screen past Albany goalie Keith Kinkaid.

The Pirates showed more life in the third period, when they forced Kinkaid to make a couple game-saving saves.

“We handled the game and played a little quicker the second half of the game,” Edwards said.

Albany failed to capitalize on three power plays late in the third period. McKenna made a couple sharp saves to keep his team in the game.

“We tried to give it away with those penalties,” Edwards said. “We’ve got to be way smarter than that.”

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