PORTLAND, ME – Mark Mancari’s power-play in the second period was all the Portland Pirates would need as Jhonas Enroth stopped all 29 Sound Tigers shots to earn his third shutout of the season and give the Pirates a 1-0 victory. Sound Tigers’ net-minder, Nathan Lawson, was named the second star of the game stopping all but one of Portland’s 23 shots. The Sound Tigers drop to 26-14-2-2 and are now in third place in the East Division after the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton beat the Hershey Bears 4-3 in the shootout tonight.
Lawson faced 10 shots in the opening period and showed his agility with five minutes to play, breaking up a Portland two-on-one opportunity. Pirates leading scorer was racing after a loose puck in the right circle but Lawson came diving out and poked it away. Portland defenseman Matt Macdonald kept the puck in the zone and wristed a shot on net, but Lawson, while back-pedaling, was able to get his stick on the shot to deflect it wide and keep the game knotted at 0-0.
Mancari would open the scoring for the Pirates while on the power-play at the 12:37 mark of the second period. Tim Kennedy chipped a puck out to Mancari at the left point where he fired a slap-shot through a screened Lawson to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Marc-Andre Gragnani also had an assist on Mancari’s 18th goal of the season.
Enroth would stop all 11 shots the Sound Tigers fired on him in the third period to cap his third shutout of the season. The Swedish net-minder would finish the game with 29 saves and Lawson stopped 22 out of 23 Pirate shots.
The Sound Tigers finished the game 0-for-4 on the power-play and 4-for-5 on the penalty-kill.
Both teams will go right back at it tomorrow night at the Cumberland County Civic Center at 7 p.m. The Sound Tigers next home game is Saturday, January 31 when the Pirates make their first trip to Arena at Harbor Yard. Face-off is set for 7 p.m. For tickets or information on how to receive discounted group tickets, contact the team’s front office at (203) 334-GOAL or e-mail [email protected].