Owen Fussey scores his fifth goal of the year – fourth game-winner – to lead the Pirates to a 2-0 win.
By Kevin Mills
Staff Writer

PORTLAND – Owen Fussey doesn’t have an abundance of goals this season, but the Portland Pirates rookie has made them count.

Fussey scored his fifth goal of the year Friday night and his team-leading fourth game-winning tally as Portland blanked Lowell 2-0 in front of 2,792 at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“That’s not bad,” said Pirates coach Tim Army. “He’s got a few against these guys. He’s played well.”

Army had given Fussey some time off last week and gave him a list of six details to keep in his wallet and focus on. He’s seen a more determined and active Fussey this week.

“I think he’s found his rhythm a little bit,” said Army. “I think his game has been good. His activity has been better around the puck.”

Fussey hadn’t scored since back-to-back games in early December. Prior to that he hadn’t scored since October. That’s a far different pace than his junior hockey days where he scored 106 goals in 237 games in the WHL.

He now has two goals and an assist against the Lock Monsters.

“I just take it shift by shift and go out and try to work my hardest and contribute to the team anyway I can,” said Fussey.

His goal early in the second period was the lead Portland wanted after a strong first period. Colin Forbes added another goal in the third while Maxime Ouellet stopped 23 shots for his fifth shutout of the year. Both Portland goals came off rebounds.

“We did a lot of good things,” said Army. “We generated some opportunities. We got rewarded by going to the net. When you talk about manufacturing some offense, those are some of the things that you have to do. You shoot the puck a little more. You’ve got to get people going to the net, and you’ve got to get your ‘D’ a little more involved.”

The win ended a five-game winless streak for Portland, which skated with just five defensemen. Jakub Cutta returned to the Czech Republic because of a death in the family, while Mike Pudlick was scratched because he was late for Friday’s morning skate.

After producing a number of chances in the opening period only to come up empty, the Pirates finally scored at 3:50 in the second period. Mike Souza jumped on a loose puck and blasted a shot from the top of the left circle. Lowell goaltender Patrick DesRochers made the stop, but Fussey was there to steer in the rebound.

“I just went to the net,” said Fussey. “That’s one of the things our team has focused on – getting shots to the net and driving to the net and creating rebounds.”

Another rebound early in the third set up the second goal. Louis Robitaille followed up a shot to the net and took a swing at the puck as DesRochers went to cover it. Robitaille got enough of it to knock it loose, and Forbes was right in front to put it into the open net.

After slipping in the Atlantic Division standings, Portland is now tied with Lowell in fifth place with 46 points.

“Obviously, these guys are ahead of us in the standings and we needed to catch them to get into the playoffs,” said Fussey. “We had a good week of practice, and we wanted to come prepared and come out strong and hard to take it to these guys.”