Portland, ME – Just like Wednesday night in Hartford Tim Kennedy came back to haunt his former team.

This time, it only took Kennedy 24 seconds to find the back of the net as he scored the game-winning goal to give the Connecticut Whale a 5-4 OT win over the Portland Pirates in front of a capacity crowd of 6,733 at the Cumberland County Civic Center in the traditional New Year’s Eve game.

Connecticut won Wednesday by the score of 2-1 on Kennedy’s goal only 36 seconds into overtime.

Tonight, only 24 seconds into the overtime, he scored his sixth of season in an eerily similar fashion.

Kennedy, circling into the left circle, took a shot on net that beat Pirates goaltender Jhonas Enroth between the legs only 24 seconds into the overtime.

Afterward Kennedy admitted he tried the same shot to what he did on Wednesday night, but instead whiffed on the play.

“It was kind of the same setup and I almost bad for Jhonas because I was going for the same spot and whiffed and it went five-hole,” he said. “I think he knew I going glove, and if it went where it was suppose to go. He probably would have saved it.”

“That’s how some goals go in and I’ll take that goal 25 times a year.”

The loss drops Portland into a tie for second place with Connecticut with 41 points, although the Pirates have three games in hand. Portland is 5-7-2-1 in their last 15 games and have only one win in their last six games.

The game was tied at four goals apiece late into the third period before Pirates were faced with penalty troubles in the final four minutes of the game, which including killing off a pair of five-on-three man advantages.

“We had our power play opportunities early and the scoresheet would be skewed in our favor for the (power plays) to start,” said Pirates head coach Kevin Dineen. “It really got balanced out there at the end.”

“(We) kill off the five-on-four, but the five on three’s are hard enough, once, but two in a row like that makes it extremely hard.”

The Pirates began the period with power play, but Connecticut’s Kris Newbury found the back of the net while shorthanded, giving the Whale a 3-2 lead only 23 second into the start of the third period.

Justin Bowers, who was recalled by the Pirates from Greenville earlier today, scored at the 5:23 mark for his first AHL goal of his career, converting on Mark Mancari’s cross-ice pass.

The assist by Mancari was his 200th professional assists and is now ninth all-time with the Pirates in assists.

Less than two minutes later, the Whale bounced back to regain the lead for the second time in the game as Jason Williams, who signed a PTO with the Whale this week and is a veteran of 420 NHL games, found the back of the wrist shot over the stick of Enroth.

Colin Stuart capped off the scoring in regulation when Corey Tropp’s shot ricocheted off the boards to the front of the net to Stuart who banked a shot off Whale netminder Chad Johnson with 10:27 to play in the third period.

The Pirates held a 1-0 lead after one period of play as Mancari found the back of the net for the only goal of the period, putting in the rebound after Matt Ellis tried to squeak a backhander by Johnson at 6:19.

Connecticut bounced back on a couple mistakes by the Pirates as Chad Kolarik scored at the 2:43 mark of the period and Todd White was credited with a goal after the puck deflected off Max Legault’s stick at the top of the crease, beating Enroth at 11:18.

“We didn’t have a good start to the second period,” said Dineen. “You can’t have an up-and-down style of play. We need a level of consistency that’s higher. When you have that (consistency) the success will follow and I don’t think we have that in our lineup right now.”

“There’s guys that I feel in our locker room that don’t understand there an extremely high level of hockey.”

The Pirates pulled even with 5:02 left in the second period when Paul Byron converted on a penalty shot after being hauled down Tomas Kundratek.

NOTES: Mark Parrish is skating and could be back within two weeks… Stuart’s goal give him his 150th career AHL point.