LEWISTON — For a sixth and final time this season, the Portland Pirates will call the Androscoggin Bank Colisee home Sunday when they host the St. John’s IceCaps.
And the team will be looking to recapture some of the magic they’ve had at the Lewiston venue in recent years after having dropped from atop the division earlier this week. The Pirates are 4-1 at the Colisee this season, and are 7-1-0-1 in their past nine trips to their home away from home.
Most important for Portland will be finding some stability in goal. After a pair of injuries to Chad Johnson and Mark Visintin, the Pirates, through their parent Phoenix Coyotes, have called up a pair of rookies in Mike Lee and former Quebec Remparts and Moncton Wildcats star Louis Domingue.
Lee was solid Saturday in the second game of the team’s current three-in-three swing, backstopping the club to a 3-1 win over Springfield.
In Saturday’s game, Boris Valabik, a former NHL regular, scored his first as a Pirate for the winning tally.
The Pirates, like all of the teams of the AHL after the end of the National Hockey League’s lockout, have been a team in flux, with players ushered into and out of the lineup with regularity depending on injuries and other transactions by the Coyotes.
Saturday, regulars Chris Brown and Rob Klinkhammer provided the other goals in the win over Springfield.
The IceCaps are the affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL, and will be making their first appearance at the Colisee.
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