LEWISTON — Portland Pirates coach Ray Edwards shuffled the lines up a bit and found instant success with Lucas Lessio, Brendan Shinnimin and Mark Louis.
The Lessio and Shinnimin each had two goals in the 5-1 victory over the Hartford Wolfpack in front of 2,031 fans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee Sunday afternoon.
Louis chipped in three assists which set a career high in a single game
“Brendan Shinnimin and Lucas have played together, but we were looking to get Mark back in the lineup,” Edwards said. “We thought we would try that. It wasn’t anything we thought to hard about, we just said lets try it. Right away it seemed to work pretty good.”
Louis had been out of the lineup for the previous two games.
“Mark Louis is probably the fastest player on our team,” Lessio said. “We really ultilized our speed tonight to make it tough on their defense.
The Pirates couldn’t convert on the three power plays in the first period, but they did have the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Shinnimin drove to the net as Lessio’s shot from the blue line went wide and bounced off the end boards, Shinnimin corralled the puck and slid it into the net. Louis picked up the secondary assist on the goal at the 10:30 mark.
“I tried to get the (puck) on net, but the defenseman’s stick was there and it kind of went off his stick,” Lessio said. “Shinnimin was great around the net and he really pounced on it and made sure it went in.”
Portland extended the lead to 3-0 in a 47 second span in the second period.
Tobias Rieder’s backhander gave the Pirates the 2-0 at the 3:56 mark with Brandon Yip and David Rundblad setting goal up.
Shinnimin picked up his second goal of the game as he tipped in Randy Jones shot from the point 4:37 into the period.
“The whole line I thought played simple, a simple game,” Edwards said. “They scored some pretty nice goals.”
The Wolf Pack got a goal back when Ryan Bourque found the back of the net on the power play 7:58 into the middle frame. Oscar Lindberg and Marek Hrivik set the goal up.
The Wolf Pack were 1 of 3 with the man advantage while the Pirates were scoreless on four chances on the power play.
The line of Lessio-Shinnimin-Louis struck again. Louis picked up the puck at the offensive blue line skated to the left circle dot and drop-passed it in between his legs to a trailing Lessio, who released a slap shot for a 4-1 lead. The goal came at the 10:19 mark.
“Lessio made a good chip out of the (defensive) zone and I skated into it,” Louis said. “Lessio just followed me up (the ice) and yelled for it.”
Lessio would strike again at the 13:11 mark with Andy Miele and Jones setting the goal up.
They were Lessio’s 19th and 20th goals of his first professional season.
Pirates goaltender Mark Visentin made 23 saves in the victory while Daniel LeNeveu turned aside 29 shots.
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- Lucas Lessio of the Pirates fights past a hook by Bretton Stamier for a shot on Wolf Pack goaltender David LeNeveu in first period action.
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