Andy Miele and Brandon McMillan scored slick backhand goals in the post-overtime competition and Mark Visentin stuffed all four shooters he faced to help lift the Pirates to a 4-3 win over the Providence Bruins in front of 1,596 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Wednesday, the team’s second win in a row and third game taking at least a point.

It was a much-needed pair of points, but Pirates coach Ray Edwards still wasn’t completely pleased.

“I’m glad we won. It was good to get the two points, but I wasn’t real happy with our game, to be honest,” Edwards said. “I didn’t think we had near enough players. We had a handful of guys going, but I we didn’t have near enough of our depth guys playing well. We talked about that. We’ll take the points and move on.”

The Bruins’ and Pirates’ rosters are both very different this week than a month ago, thanks to injuries and illnesses at the National Hockey League level.

“Both teams have a lot of guys out of their lineup,” Edwards said, “but for me, the thing that’s disappointing is that this would be an opportunity for other players to step up and we didn’t have enough of those guys play well.”

When the players in question did play well, the results were positive, and none bigger than Brendan Shinnimin’s tying goal with 5:46 to play in regulation as he shoveled the puck past Providence keeper Malcom Subban on a rebound at the left post.

“We did a good job all three of us of getting the puck to the net,” forward Brandon Yip, who assisted on the tying goal, said. “Shinny did a good job to stick with it and put it in there.

“That was part of our game plan, we wanted to work it low,” Yip added. “We had some success doing that last game against them cycling the puck and getting pucks to the net, and we showed it that shift.”

Visentin was solid against the shots he saw, but had trouble early with a pair of shots from the point, at least one of which appeared to deflect off a body or a stick in front of the cage.

“I don’t want to say that he should have had any of them, because I want to see them,” Edwards said. “If they had net-front presence, it’s tough for him to see that. But we have to look at that and see if we need to do a better job getting in the lanes, clearing the front of the net, or does he have to find a way to make a save there?”

After some solid play on both ends resulted in no scoring through the first half of the first period, the Bruins registered the first goal of the contest.

Defenseman Ben Youds netted his first of the season with a shot from the right side that found its way through a crowd and past Visentin to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.

Another defenseman, Joe Morrow, made it 2-0 in favor of Providence just 1:43 later on a power play. Lucas Lessio went to the penalty box for holding, and the Bruins went to work with the extra skater, setting up in the Pirates’ zone and cycling the puck back to Morrow, who ripped it past Visentin.

The Pirates caught a break on a slashing call to Rob Flick when he knocked the stick from the hands of a Pirates forward. On the ensuing power play, Daine Todd cut the Providence lead in half with a blast through traffic for his first professional goal. With less than five seconds to play in the frame, the puck squirted through Subban and into the cage.

The Bruins went back in front at 5:26 of the second when yet another shot from the point into a screen in front — this one from David Warsofsky — tipped off Matt Lindblad’s stick and into the net behind Visentin.

Portland again climbed to within a goal at 9:15 of the second when Lessio redirected a Brandon Gormely shot from the left circle past Subban, and tied it on Shinnimin’s tally late in the final period.

The Pirates are back in action Friday on the road against Providence, and then return home Saturday for a matchup with Manchester on Teddy Bear Toss night at the Colisee.

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