It was a night of many first for the Portland Pirates. Newcomer Geoff Platt scored his first goal in a Pirates uniform, Brett Festerling’s scored his first professional goal, it was the first time Portland scored five or more goals in a game and it was the Pirates first win on the road as they defeated the Manchester Monarchs, 5-3 for only their third regulation win of the season.

Geoff Platt, just acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday opened the scoring at 4:14 of the second period when he batted at a rebound in mid-air, beating Monarchs goaltender Dan Cloutier.

At 6:39, while on the power play, AHL leading scorer Gabe Gauthier would tie game at 1-1 when he snapped a shot by Pirates goalie Mike McKenna.

In the third period, the Pirates would double the Monarchs on the scoresheet as King, Festerling, Hoffman and Schneider tallied goals in a fast and furious 20 minutes of play.

There were six power play goals in the game (each team scoring three a piece).

Pirates’ goaltender Mike McKenna made 32 saves for the victory, his fourth straight win.

Dan Cloutier made 27 saves before he was shown the gate for fighting. Erik Ersberg came in relief making three saves of four shots.

Official Scoresheet

Recap on PortlandPirates.com

Dan Hickling Blog