The road has been kind to the Portland Pirates this season, but not even a quick trip away Saturday could help solve the team’s recent offensive woes.
Three different Springfield skaters scored and former Pirate Mike McKenna stopped 26 shots to lead the Falcons to a 3-0 win over the Pirates in front of 3,481 at the MassMutual Center.
The loss is the third in a row for Portland, which had collected points in each of its seven previous games. In those three contests, the Pirates have scored just two goals.
Mark Visentin has started all but three of the Pirates’ games this season, and he was again the hard-luck loser between the pipes Saturday, stopping 27 of Springfield’s chances. Mike Lee has started a pair of games this season for the Pirates, but has been pulled once. And Louis Domingue earned one start on the road in Providence with a 40-plus save effort, but was shipped to Gwinnett of the ECHL later that week.
McKenna, meanwhile, turned in his second consecutive strong outing for the Falcons against his former team. He also helped Springfield defeat the Pirates in a shootout at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Nov. 16.
Saturday, it took the homestanding Falcons just 6:45 to open the scoring when Dalton Smith beat Visentin for his second of the season. While the Falcons didn’t score another in the first, they had their chances courtesy three Portland penalties.
Spencer Machachek notched his second of the season at 6:18 of the second period to push the Springfield lead to 2-0 on assists from Darryl Boyce and Sean Collins.
Machachek added another with 1:17 to play into an empty net, the second time in as many games a team has scored an empty-net goal with more than a minute to play in the game.
The Pirates are back in action Friday at Worcester before their next home contest, a Saturday tilt against rival Manchester at the Colisee.
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