The Portland Pirates surrendered three first period goals in a 4-2 loss to the host Hershey Bears on Saturday night. The Bears swept the weekend set to drop the Pirates below the .500 mark at 7-8.
Chris Bourque opened the scoring with an even-strength goal at 8:42 from Nathan Walker and Ryan Stanton.
Later in the frame, defenseman Jonathan Racine and Cameron Gaunce took cross-checking penalties 41 seconds apart to set the table for Hershey.
Travis Boyd scored on the 5-on-3, with the assists going to Bourque and Aaron Ness, at 17:44 and Chris Brown bagged his first of the season on the 5-on-4 seventeen seconds later. Riley Barber and Sean Collins set up the Brown goal.
Mike McKenna relieved starter Sam Brittain at the start of the second period and he was beaten at 11:34 by a Paul Carey deflection. Stanton registered the primary assist for his second point, while the secondary helper went to Chandler Stephenson.
With the Pirates down 4-0, Brittain re-entered the game in the third period and stopped all 11 shots he faced during the final stanza.
Kyle Rau notched his seventh of the season, from Chase Balisy and Gaunce, to end the shutout bid of Justin Peters, who finished with 25 saves, at the 17:16 mark.
Logan Shaw fired home his seventh goal fifty-seven seconds later to complete the scoring. Sena Acolatse and Greg McKegg drew the assists on Shaw’s power-play tally.
Britain took the loss, ending the game with 21 stops on 24 shots. McKenna turned aside 5 of the 6 shots he faced in the second period.
The Pirates will return home for two versus the Utica Comets on Friday and Saturday night.