The Portland Pirates will return home without any points after they were swept away in their three-game road trip this weekend as the Springfield Falcons held on for a 2-1 victory before 2,136 at the MassMutual Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Pirates have been outscored, 13-3, in their last three games as they’ve lost six of their last seven road games, going 1-5-1.

While the effort was better than last night’s, 7-1, debacle to the Hershey Bears, it was a mistake that proved costly as the Pirates gave up the first goal of the game while on the power play.

With Tomas Kubalik in the box for interference, Andrew Joudrey forced a turnover on Pirates defenseman Michael Stone, pushing the puck to Dane Byers for a breakaway, beating goaltender Curtis McElhinney for the shorthand goal at 13:25 of the first period.

The Pirates bounced back in early in the second period as forward Brett MacLean found the back of the net, scooping up the rebound at the right post and stuffing the puck by Falcons’ goalie Manny Lagace less than four minute into the period to tie the game at 1.

The momentum swing began to tilt in the Falcons direction in the second half of the period after Brock Trotter was whistled for goaltender interference after colliding with Lagace behind the net.

Lagace (17 saves) was down on the ice for several minutes, but stayed in the game for the rest of the period before eventually making way for Allen York just a minute into the third period.

Alexandre Giroux tallied the game-winning goal, 2-1, with only 15 seconds left in the second period, beating McElhinney on the backdoor after a Martin St. Pierre fired a centering pass from behind the net.

McElhinney returned to the net after getting Saturday off, stopping 30 of 32 shots.

The Pirates fall back to .500 on the season with a 10-10-1-1 record and currently sit 13th in the Eastern Conference, four points out of the playoff position.

NOTES: Pirates defenseman Chris Summers was recalled by the Phoenix Coyotes on an emergency basis on Sunday. The Coyotes, who only have six defensemen on the roster, have a 23-man roster right now and would have needed to place a player on waivers to make room on the roster for a standard player recall…. Pirates coach Ray Edwards shook up the lines on Sunday in an effort to give the team a boost…. Matt Watkins, who was moved to the third line with Ryan Hollweg and Ashton Rome, was taken off the top line with Andy Miele and MacLean, putting Ryan Duncan in his place. Trotter was on a line with Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Brett Hextall. Evan Bloodoff, Ethan Werek and Jordan Szwarz made up the fourth line. Igor Gongalsky, Spencer Bennett and Colin Long were healthy scratches.