SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks Sleepwalk Into Portland, Lose 6-2

The Worcester Sharks made far too many mistakes for a fresh team to overcome, never mind a squad playing their fifth game in eight days, and dropped a 6-2 contest to the Portland Pirates Tuesday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine in front of a reported crowd of 2,690 fans.

Sharkspage didn’t make the trip to The Pine Tree State, so for those interested in the particulars they can check out the Worcester Telegram & Gazette where Bill Ballou has his usual game story and notes column. Paul Betit of the Portland Press Herald has the Pirates side of things.

And both the WorSharks and Pirates have their own points of view on their respective official sites.

GAME NOTES
There were a few “paper” transactions on Monday with Justin Braun, John McCarthy, and Carter Hutton all being assigned to Worcester and then recalled to ensure the players eligibility for the AHL playoffs. The Worcester Shuttle also made a stop in the Bay State and picked up Brandon Mashinter. With Johnathan Cheechoo being added to the injury list defenseman Jody Pederson was the only healthy scratch for the team. Cheechoo is still a little banged up from a couple of previous injuries and is considered “day-to-day”.

In a scheduling oddity the WorSharks will play a total of five games on Tuesday during the season, and four of them are against the Pirates. Three of those four are in Portland, and Worcester’s last home game of the season is a Tuesday contest against the pirates. The fifth game was home against Albany. The WorSharks are currently 1-2 on Tuesday.

The three stars of the game were
1. POR – 12 Paul Byron (g,2a)
2. POR – 39 Luke Adam (2g,+3)
3. POR – 17 Marc-Andre Gragnani (2a)

The game sheet shows Mike Moore at +2 and everyone else either even or minus, so we’ll give him the Sharkspage player of the game.

BOXSCORE
Worcester 0 2 0 – 2
Portland 3 2 1 – 6

1st Period-1, Portland, Adam 18 (Byron, Mancari), 1:55. 2, Portland, Byron 15 (Mancari), 14:37. 3, Portland, Brennan 11 (Gragnani, Tropp), 17:57. Penalties-Quirk Wor (high-sticking), 2:51; Petrecki Wor (roughing), 18:46; Loprieno Wor (elbowing), 19:54.

2nd Period-4, Worcester, Sullivan 12 (McGinn, DaSilva), 9:19. 5, Portland, Whitmore 22 (Byron, Gragnani), 10:23 (PP). 6, Worcester, DaSilva 12 (Desjardins, Moore), 14:11. 7, Portland, Adam 19 (Stuart), 19:55. Penalties-McLaren Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting), 10:02; Conboy Por (fighting), 10:02; served by McCauley Por (bench minor – too many men), 12:56; McGinn Wor (hooking), 13:13; Adam Por (cross-checking), 17:47.

3rd Period-8, Portland, Stuart 11 (Crawford, Parrish), 12:50 (PP). Penalties-McLaren Wor (hooking), 4:22; DaSilva Wor (slashing), 12:39.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 9-7-10-26. Portland 15-7-7-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0/2; Portland 2/7.
Goalies-Worcester, Sexsmith 1-1-1 (29 shots-23 saves). Portland, Enroth 20-17-2 (26 shots-24 saves).
A-2,690
Referees-Geno Binda (22), Terry Koharski (10). Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Joe Andrews (32).