The Portland Pirates completed a back-to-back sweep of the St. John’s IceCaps with 4-2 victory Friday night at Cross Insurance Arena.
Cameron Gaunce (2) dented the twine to open the scoring at 10:11 of the first period from John McFarland and MacKenzie Weegar.
St. John’s Bud Holloway notched a power-play goal with two seconds left in the middle frame to even the tilt. Sven Andrighetto and Morgan Ellis drew the helpers.
Rocco Grimaldi (8) restored the lead at 1:59 of the third with the assists going to Mike Matheson and Wayne Simpson.
Weegar combined with Rob Flick to set up Rob Schremp (17) for a power-play goal at the 12:07 mark that proved to be the eventual game-winner.
Grimaldi (9) bagged his second of the night 46 seconds later to put the Pirates up by three with Kyle Rau and Simpson collecting up the helpers on the even-strength goal.
The IceCaps got a meaningless tally from Mark MacMillan with three seconds left to complete the scoring.
Mike McKenna made 27 stops to pick up his 21st win, while Eddie Pasquale finished with 31 saves for St. John’s.
Up next for Portland (26-15-1) is a road game versus the Springfield Falcons tonight at 7 p.m.