MAJOR BLOGS at Minor League News (MLN) - Dan Hickling - The Guerilla Stringer

May 4 Providence/Portland Gm 5

2008-05-05T13:29:52Z

PORTLAND, Maine -- Somewhere between the first and second hop, an exhausted Simon Ferguson turned his head and turned tail for the Portland Pirate bench. When the puck that Ferguson had so purposefully dumped in to the Providence zone took it’s final bounce and slithered through the pads of Bruin goalie Tuukka Rask, the hard-nosed Pirate winger knew something good must have happened. In fact without even looking, Ferguson had delivered the Pirates a 3-2 overtime win, to square their best of seven Atlantic Division final series at two games apiece. Portland which suffered severe thrashings in the first two games, now have a chance to take a 3-2 lead, when the teams meet in Game 5, here, tomorrow night. Thanks in large part to Ferguson’s gambit, the hockey equivalent of the Hail Mary.

Apr. 19 PORTLAND Me Hartford @ Portland

2008-04-20T01:39:00Z

PORTLAND, Maine -- Pirates win a hard fought playoff "classic", 3-2 over the Hartford WolfPack to take a 2-1 lead in their Atlantic Div Semi...and while Portland was given a huge boost by the return of both Bobby Ryan (from Anaheim) and Drew Miller (from injury), I thought a key to the Pirates' success was the large contribution made by their fourth line --which featured rookie Matt Caruana between Michal Birner and Darryl Bootland-- which spent much of the night in the grill of Hartford goalie David LeNeveu....between them they had three shots (all of them by Birner) and kept WolfPack forwards honest...Of course, in the regular season, when AHL teams can only dress 17 players, there is no true fourth line. However, with 18 dressing in the playoffs, teams that have the personnel (such as Portland) can roll unit after unit, which had a wear down effect on the Pack (whose fourth line consisted of three players from the ECHL)...."When you're four deep," said Portland coach Kevin Dineen, "it's like baseball. Your line up's a little deeper. It's like a 3-4-5 hitter. I think it should be 18 and 2 (goalies) all year long. I wish they would. They say 'aw, then they'll just dress another tough guy.' But we're a development league now, and you're stealing a (roster) spot. We're a development league, and players should get a little better opportunity."

Apr. 19 PORTLAND ME

2008-04-19T21:19:30Z

PORTLAND, Maine -- One of the joys of covering hockey is getting to the rink early...getting a early taste of the ambience...an h'ockey h'ors doeurves if you will...90 minutes before puck drop for tonight's Atl Div Semi between Hartford and Portland at the CCCC...no one in the seats....the ice is an unspoiled canvas awaiting the brush strokes of sharpened skates....who knows...maybe something I've never seen will happen...actually, I'm counting on that...Hockey, indeed, is a gift from a loving God....

Portland ME Apr 11

2008-04-12T14:36:49Z

PORTLAND, Maine -- I may be the last living American to have seen live baseball this year, but it's good to be back in the park...back in Hadlock Field. I'm not the only one to make his first showing on Park Ave. (Portland style). The Portland Sea Dogs finally made their 2008 Hadlock Field debut, too. Too bad for them that their bats didn’t come along with them.

Jan 27 BINGHAMTON NY License and Registration, please..

2008-01-28T03:08:29Z

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- If you should happen to hit 102.1 on a radar gun, you'd better have a good explanation for the statie who pulled you over, or one heck of a slapshot. Fortunately for Mark Mancari of the Rochester Americans, he is the possessor of the latter. He's also the new owner of the record for the hardest slapshot in an AHL All-Star Skills Competition, having hit that aforementioned mark, tonight, eclipsing Kurtis Foster's five year old standard (101.0) set back in 2003. Winding up for his second of two attempts, Mancari split the heart of the net with his drive. And when the supersonic clocking was announced, the full house at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena went nuts.

Jan. 5 Springfield MA

2008-01-06T03:44:27Z

SPRINGFIELD, MA -- Teams go through droughts of all sorts, and the Portland Pirates happen to be experienced a parched power play of late.

Pirates went 0-for-8 against Springfield's PK tonight, and now carry an 0-for-2008. More specifically, they've gone 0-for-25 on man up situations since Brendan Mikkelson scored against Tuukka Rask of Providence back on Dec. 29.

Asked Springfield coach Kelly Buchberger about containing Portland's power play, which had been the seventh best in the AHL. "In our own end, we've been okay," he said. "We've been reading their power play, but they've got some skilled players in Portland. Hats off to our PK tonight. On the five on three (which lasted 1:12 in the second period), you've got to be really sound, and you've got to keep your triangle really tight. If you're moving around and flopping around, it makes it easier for them to find openings. We just wanted to keep it simple."

Said Pirate center Petteri Wirtanen, "we were in a good run, but to keep it up, we've got to play better every night. There are no easy teams in this division."

Jan 2 Lowell Mass. A bit on the wacky side...

2008-01-03T03:36:42Z

LOWELL, Mass. -- Pretty wacky....Springfield wins 4-3 in a shootout over the Lowell Devils snapping a seven game winless streak. But by their own admission, it never should have come down to a shootout. Springfield took a cushy lead into the middle stretches of the third period, then coughed the whole thing up when Lowell scored three times in a span of 6:22. That's the same goal challenged Lowellians --made more so by today's callup of Barry Tallackson and Noah Clarke-- which hadn't scored in a stretch of 117:10.

Dec. 29 Portland, ME....Providence Takes 4-3 Shootout Win from Portland Pirates

2007-12-30T03:16:23Z

By DAN HICKLING www.MLNSportszone.com PORTLAND, Maine -- Is there any test too stiff for the Providence Bruins to pass? You wouldn’t know it by the way they rallied, Saturday, to pull out a 4-3 shootout win over the Portland Pirates. Down twice by two goals, the Peebs fought back and eventually tied the contest on Jeff Hoggan’s shorthander with 8:21 to go in regulation. “It builds team character, wins like these,” said Peebs captain Nate Thompson. “When you’re down two goals and can find a way to come back. This one was huge tonight, and everyone made it happen.”

Nov. 16 Portland @ Manchester....three goals and a cloud of chips

2007-11-17T03:34:01Z

MLN Major Blogs- MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Just got through witnessing a pretty good hockey game (in my eyes, there are no bad ones), which had Portland edging Manchester, 5-3...Notable in some ways, such as the Portland debut of Geoff Platt, who had seasons of 30 and 28 goals for Syracuse. He notched a pretty goal that got the Pirates going in the second, then came within an assist of notching the Gordie Howe Hat Trick, when he traded blows with Manchester goalie Dan Cloutier late in the game. "It was a surprising instance," said Platt. "I was cross checked into the goalie, and Dan just exploded on me. I didn't expect that at all. I tried to protect myself, but I was taking body shots. I could see my teammates in my peripheral (vision) coming in like mad men. That was really interesting."

Nov 14 Portland and Providence Tooooooka

2007-11-15T03:33:58Z

By DAN HICKLING PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Another day, another building for the Providence Bruins to skate to victory in. But this time, there was a twist. The fans were cheering them every step of the way. Providence, which reeled off an impressive 8-1-1 season opening string, all of it on the road, finally got to strut their stuff at the newly renovated Dunkin’ Donuts Center, edging the Portland Pirates in a shootout, 3-2, before 6,288.