The Portland Pirates saw their losing streak reach five games Friday night at the hands of a bunch of former Pirates.

Jordan Szwarz and Lucas Lessio scored in their old home rink to lead the Springfield Falcons to a 6-1 American Hockey League victory over the Pirates before a crowd of 3,877 at Cross Insurance Arena.

Springfield is now affiliated with the Arizona Coyotes, Portland’s parent club the previous four seasons, so the Falcons’ lineup was littered with former Pirates.

One of them, goaltender Louis Domingue, made 35 saves and kept the Pirates scoreless until the third period.

Craig Cunningham gave Springfield a 1-0 lead late in the first period with a rebound goal. Laurent Dauphin made it 2-0 midway through the second, making a speedy foray down the right side before cutting back in front for a short flip over Pirates goalie Mike McKenna.

McKenna lost his stick for much of a penalty kill after a delay of game call on the Pirates but managed to keep the Falcons at bay. Seconds after the penalty expired, however, Szwarz got loose on a breakaway and slid a backhand past McKenna to make it 3-0.

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Sam Brittain came on in relief but gave up a deflected goal to Lessio from the high slot on another Springfield power play.

The Pirates finally managed to put one past Domingue seven minutes into the third when Chase Balisy pounced on the rebound of a Rob Flick shot and poked it into the net.

Less than two minutes later, though, Cunningham tipped in a Philip Samuelsson slap shot to give the Falcons a 5-1 advantage. Dustin Jeffrey finished the scoring while Springfield was on a five-on-three power play.

The Pirates return to action Wednesday night at home against Hartford.


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