SMITH'S PAIR NOT ENOUGH IN GAME TWO

POST-GAME AUDIO: Todd Richards | Nathan Smith

WILKES-BARRE, PA – A strong third period wasn’t enough to overcome a slow start, as the Portland Pirates posted a 3-2 win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday night at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.

The Pirates’ victory evened the best of seven series at one game apiece, with the next three games slated for Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

AHL All-Star Bobby Ryan netted two goals for the visitors, who snapped the Pens’ postseason winning streak at five games.

“We didn’t help ourselves in the first 40 minutes.  They created a lot of momentum, got up by a couple of goals.  We battled back but it was just one too many,” said head coach Todd Richards.

Pens’ captain Nathan Smith – who scored a pair of goals himself on Thursday - concurred with the coach’s assessment.

“They carried the play the first and second period, and that probably ended up being the difference in the game,” he said.

Portland came out strong in the opening period, controlling play in the Penguins end and peppering John Curry with 11 shots to just four by the hosts.  The rookie netminder held the Pirates at bay until the 9:49 mark of the second frame. 

With Ryan Stone off for goaltender interference, Andrew Ebbett tipped a Brian Salcido point shot that found the back of the net, snapping Curry’s shutout streak at just over 122 minutes.

Four minutes later, Ryan extended the lead to 2-0 with a great individual effort that saw Portland’s leading scorer deke Curry for his sixth goal of the postseason.

Smith got the Pens on the board shortly before intermission, taking a back door pass from Luca Caputi and redirecting the puck underneath the crossbar.  That led to an all-out assault by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the third period, which saw the Penguins outshoot the Pirates 16-2.

However Ryan notched his second of the night – this one on the power play – with less than five minutes to play, before Smith countered with a power play tally of his own less than two minutes later.

“For 40 minutes they were clearly the better team.  They were winning the races to loose pucks and there was a lot of motion in the offensive zone and in their D-zone, we ended up chasing a lot of times,” said Richards.  “The goal at the end of the second kind of energized us a little bit.  We got some life in the third, we got great opportunities to score.  We gave up the power play goal, but our power play comes back and answers and gives us a chance in the final two and a half minutes or so.”

“The game kind of takes a different shape when they’re up and trying to protect a lead, and obviously we are trying to do everything we can to score a goal,” commented Smith.  “Having said that I think that we did a lot better job of getting on pucks and things like that, we generated some chances.  And that’s what we have to do early in Game Three.  We have to get pucks behind their D, get a good forecheck going, and create some havoc down there and create some traffic in front of their goalie.”