Portland Pirates 2, Connecticut Whale 1

Portland, ME, April 11, 2012 - The Portland Pirates got goals from Ashton Rome and Marc-Antoine Pouliot, and Peter Mannino made 34 saves, Wednesday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, as the Pirates defeated the Connecticut Whale, 2-1. Marek Hrivik scored the only goal, his first point as a pro, for the Whale, who outshot Portland 35-27.  Nathan Oystrick had two assists for the Pirates. “The focus is to keep playing well, to peak when we hit the playoffs,” Whale head coach Ken Gernander said.  “Tonight was a pretty good indication, I thought we worked pretty hard and generated a lot of shots, just didn’t score enough.” The loss kept the Whale (36-26-7-5, 84 pts.) three points behind the idle Bridgeport Sound for the Northeast Division lead.  Connecticut clinched a spot in the playoffs with a win in their previous outing, a 1-0 road decision over the Hershey Bears Sunday. The Whale controlled significant stretches of the first period Wednesday and outshot the...