29-year-old veteran Rob Schremp made the most of his North American pro playoff debut, scoring two goals including the eventual winner in the Portland Pirates wild 6-4 win over the favored Hershey Bears in Game 1 of their best-of-5 series.
Portland’s Kyle Rau (1) opened the scoring 6:11 into the action with the lone assist going to Rocco Grimaldi.
Schremp (1) added to the lead with 1:56 left in the stanza with the assists credited to Matt MacKenzie and Corban Knight.
The visiting Bears quickly replied on a Ryan Stanton marker 1:42 later.
Portland went back ahead by two when Brett Olson (1) beat former Panther and Rampage goalie Dan Ellis at 14:08 of the second period. The goal was set up by Rob Flick and Brent Regner.
Atlantic Division-winning Hershey again got right back in it when Jakub Vrana scored 1:41 after the Olson goal.
The Pirates took firmer control with two goals in a eleven-second span early in the third period.
Shane Harper (1) scored at 3:12 from Regner and Grimaldi before Schremp (2) solved Ellis for the second time at 3:23. Knight and MacKenzie drew the helpers on the Schremp goal.
Despite being down by three, the Bears kept coming, cutting the deficit back down to one on a pair of goals from defenseman Tyler Lewington. The first came at 7:49 and the second at the 15:14 mark.
A power-play goal from Harper (2) with ten ticks left on the clock completed the scoring. Rookies Rau and Grimaldi drew the assists on the clincher. Grimaldi finished the tilt with three helpers.
AHL-leading scorer Chris Bourque posted two assists for Hershey.
Mike McKenna got the win, finishing with 28 stops. Ellis turned away 26 of the 32 shots he faced.
Game 2 is tonight at Cross Insurance Arena before the series shifts to Hershey for the remainder of the games next week.