The Portland Pirates cruised to a 5-2 win over the visiting Springfield Falcons on Wednesday night in front of a crowd 3.433 of at Cross Insurance Arena. It was Portland’s fourth win in their last five games.
John McFarland opened the scoring with an even-strength goal just 2:29 into the action. Chase Balisy and Rob Schremp drew the helpers on McFarland’s seventh.
Kyle Rau scored two power-play goals to send the Pirates to the dressing room up 3-0 after twenty-minutes.
The first came at 12:47 and was set up by Shane Harper and Mackenzie Weegar. The same two players picked up the assists on Rau’s second goal which came with 42 seconds left in the frame. Rau now has eleven goals on the season.
After a scoreless second period, Schremp lit the lamp for a team-leading twelfth time, with the lone assist going to Balisy, at 1:18 of the third period.
The Falcons finally got on the board when Greg Carey beat Mike McKenna at the 3:41 mark. Assists on the goal were credited to Corey Potter and Dustin Jeffrey.
McFarland notched his second of the night at 10:09 to restore Portland’s big four-goal with the assists going to Brett Olson and Weegar.
Carey lit the lamp a second time to complete the scoring. The goal came with 3:46 left in regulation and was set up Alex Grant and Justin Hache.
McKenna finished the game with 30 stops, raising his record to 8-7-1. Niklas Treutle made 20 saves and took the loss.
Up next for Portland (12-11-1) is a two-game, weekend set in Bridgeport against the Sound Tigers.