James Sheppard scored his third goal in two games and Harri Sateri made 29 saves as the Worcester Sharks blew two leads in a 3-2 loss to the Portland Pirates Sunday afternoon at the DCU Center. Matt Tennyson also scored for the Sharks, who now trail the Pirates by three points for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Just 58-seconds into the game, the Sharks found themselves on a power play when Pirates forward Rob Klinkhammer was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. 25-seconds into the power play opportunity, Tennyson ripped a laser of a shot from the point that beat Pirates goaltender Chad Johnson glove side for his second goal of the season. Sharks rookies Travis Oleksuk and Freddie Hamilton were credited with the assists.
The Sharks lead was short lived as 13-seconds later, Pirates rookie Brendan Shinnimin ripped a one-timer from in the slot past Sateri for his fourth goal of the season off a nice feed from linemate Jason Szwarz. At 11:42, Sheppard put the Sharks up 2-1 when he blasted a one-timer off a feed from linemate Brodie Reid past Johnson for his sixth goal of the season. Jon Matsumoto was credited with the secondary assist.
The Pirates tied the game at 2:11 of the second period when Pirates captain Alexandre Bolduc found defenseman Brandon Gormley at the far post for an easy tap in power play goal, his second goal of the season. The Pirates outshot the Sharks 12-4 in the middle frame but Sateri stood tall in net and made several impressive saves near the end of the period to keep the game tied.
Andy Miele put the Pirates up 3-2 at 5:53 of the third period when he got positioning in front and redirected a Maxim Goncharov slap shot past Sateri for his his seventh goal of the season, which held up as the game winning goal. Despite out-shooting the Pirates 8-5 in the final frame, having a power play opportunity with 4:35 remaining and pulling Sateri for the extra attacker with 100 seconds remaining, the Sharks couldn’t get the tying goal past Johnson.
NOTES: Shots were 32-24 in favor of the Pirates… The Sharks went 1-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill… Sateri is now 4-6-2-1 with a 3.11 goals-against-average and .901 save percentage… Sena Acolatse (inj), Taylor Doherty (inj), Nick Petrecki (inj), Danny Groulx (inj), Matt Irwin (inj), Curt Gogol (inj) and Sebastian Stalberg (scr) did not dress for the Sharks, who dressed only five defensemen… This was the sixth of 12 meetings between the teams this season… The Sharks are 3-3-0-0 against the Pirates this season, 9-4-1-1 against the Atlantic Division, 5-5-1-1 at the DCU Center and 13-10-1-2 with 29 points overall.
Three Stars
1. Jordan Szwarz – Pirates (0-2-2)
2. Andy Miele – Pirates (1-0-1)
3. Matt Tennyson – Sharks (1-0-1)
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