PORTLAND – Even if history does repeat itself, the Portland Pirates made sure it didn’t Saturday night.

After watching Providence score twice in a span of 32 seconds late in Friday’s game in a disheartening 4-3 loss, the Pirates weren’t about to let another lead slip away Saturday against Wilkes-Barre.

Portland built a 3-0 lead and produced a fine defensive effort in the final period to earn a 4-0 win in front of 4,477 at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“Last night might have been the best game we’ve played all year,” said Pirates coach Tim Army. “I thought we played really well. All five of their shots came in the last few minutes. We just made mistakes when the game was on the line.”

That wasn’t the case against the Penguins.

Graham Mink, Ivan Ciernik and Trent Whitfield each scored goals while Maxime Ouellet continued to play superbly to take a 3-0 lead into the final period. Ouellet stopped 31 shots for his second shutout in the his last three games. He’s allowed just nine goals in his last five outings.

“That was really important,” said Ouellet. “We wanted to bounce back from (Friday). We really played well and deserved to win. We really felt bad about the loss (Friday). With the big road trip, it’s important to go on the road with a little bit of confidence.”

The turning point in the game was the second period. Holding a 1-0 lead on Mink’s first period tally, Portland faced a series of four straight Wilkes-Barre power plays. The Pirates managed to kill them all off and then added to the lead with an even strength goal and a power play score.

“That’s a pretty good offensive team,” said Army. “They throw it around pretty well. We did a really good job killing, and Max came up with some big stops. We were able to get through it.”

Mink’s goal came with 2:04 left in the first. He popped in the rebound of a Colin Forbes shot.

The Pirates would have to cling to that lead in the early going of the second period. Wilkes-Barre put up 11 shots during their string of power plays but none could beat Ouellet.

“We were able to shut the door,” said Ouellet. “Right after, we were able to get a second goal and that was key for us. Then we got a goal on the power play, and that made a difference.”

The 2-0 lead came on Portland’s second shot of the period. They’d been outshot 13-2 at that point. Ciernik was staked out at the left side and buried an Andrej Podkonicky pass from the corner with 9:01 left in the period.

Portland then started getting its chances on the power play and upped the lead to 3-0 with 5:06 left while on a two-man advantage. Ciernik found Whitfield in front for the tip in.

“Usually it will fire up the offense, if you’re not too tired,” said Army of the penalty kills. “If you are able to get through it, you’re going to get some chances.”

Portland finished the job with a strong third period, allowing the Penguins just one shot for the first 10-plus minutes. Forbes added a final goal with 19 seconds left.

“Even though we had a 3-0 lead, the game wasn’t over,” said Ouellet.

“(Friday) we were up 3-1 and they came back. So it was really important to keep focused and play until the end of the game and that’s what we were able to do.”

PIRATES NOTES: Former Pirate defenseman Patrick Boileau is the captain of the Penguins and has seven assists in 12 games. Former Pirate goaltender Martin Brochu played one game with the Penguins, allowing four goals. He has been sent to Wheeling in the East Coast League.