WORCESTER, Mass. — Buoyed by a strong performance at home Friday and an increase in game action thanks to a more active schedule, Mark Visentin is seeing the puck well.
The Portland Pirates goalie was on point again Sunday, making a pair of goals from Tobias Rieder and another two from Chris Brown stand up with a 30-save performance as the Pirates wrestled a 4-3 victory from the Worcester Sharks at the DCU Center on Sunday.
“He was solid, he had a really solid game,” Pirates head coach Ray Edwards said of Visentin. “(Worcester) is a tough team to play against for a goalie because they get a lot of traffic in front.”
Rieder, who netted a pair in the team’s opener and was then sidelined seven games, found his scoring touch again Sunday, scoring his goals on two of the team’s first three shots of the first period.
“He’s got a really quick release, he’s hard on the puck,” Edwards said. “We’re still getting to know him as a player, because we haven’t had him in many games, but just adding him into the lineup gives you a little bit more skill.”
Brown, meanwhile, spent the first part of the season with the Pirates’ parent club, the Phoenix Coyotes. It took some time for him to re-acclimate to his AHL surroundings, but with three goals in two games, he appears to be hitting his stride.
“We knew it was a matter of time before he put a couple of pucks in the net,” Edwards said. “He’s been getting chances and he’s been shooting the puck.”
Sunday’s effort was Visentin’s second consecutive strong outing. He stopped 45 shots in Friday’s 5-1 victory over Worcester, and added 30 more in the rematch, including several key stops in the third period to keep Portland within striking distance.
“Overall he had a really good weekend for us,” Edwards said.
Edwards juggled his lineup a bit Sunday, as well, reinserting Kyle Hagel, Ethan Werek and Brett Hextall into the lineup while sitting Gilbert Brulé, Brendan Shinnimin and Brandon McMillan.
Hextall wasted little time proving why he was back in the game. Known for his energy, the speedy skater dumped the puck deep for a line change and followed it into the zone. As Sharks defenseman Adam Comrie tried to curl from behind the cage, Hextall caught him from behind and forced Comrie to the ice as he lost the puck, which glided onto the stick of a freshly-rested and hard-charging Rieder. His wrister beat Worcester keeper Harri Seteri on the glove side, banked off both posts and ultimately fell into the net.
On the game’s first power play, the Sharks wasted no time capitalizing. Comrie netted his first of the season with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle, beating Visentin high blocker off the left post on a feed from Sena Acolatse for the power play tally and a 1-1 tie.
Rieder unloaded a slick wrister from the middle of the slot on a feed from the right corner from Tim Kennedy with 3:01 to play in the first frame to again put Portland in front. Rider’s shot surprised Seteri to the glove side, inside the right post.
“(Rieder) had two big goals for us tonight to get us going in the game,” Edwards said.
The Sharks outplayed the Pirates early in the second, and finally got the break they needed when a puck in deep drifted out to Nick Petrecki at the left point. Petrecki slid to his right, to the top of the slot, and fired a wrister through traffic and past Visentin to knot the game at 2-2.
Worcester grabbed the momentum early in the third after killing off three consecutive minor penalties that gave the Pirates extended time with a 5-on-3 advantage.
“The execution was there,” Edwards said, “but we couldn’t get one in.”
The Sharks parlayed that momentum into a goal 3:52 into the frame as James Livingston fired the puck past Visentin through a crowd and beat the Portland keeper for the home team’s first lead of the night at 3-2.
“That whole momentum swing there, scoring two right away, we could have very easily, our attitude could have been poor and we could have let them go, but I thought we stuck together there, it was a crucial part of the game,” Edwards said.
Brown collected his first of the game at 8:01 with a shot through Seteri’s pads to even things up at 3-3, and followed that with the winner at 11:27 on a wrister from the top of the left circle, lifting the Pirates to a second consecutive win.
Portland returns to the ice for a pair of home games Friday and Saturday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.
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