Admirals rally twice to get even, only to fall again

NORFOLK

Old friend Mathieu Darche broke a 3-3 tie early in the third period and powered the Portland Pirates past the victory-starved Norfolk Admirals 5-3 on Saturday night at Scope.

Darche, who played one spectacular week with the Admirals during a 2007-08 season spent primarily in the NHL, decided an entertaining end-to-end contest that featured some of the Admirals' best hockey of the season.

Norfolk rallied from deficits of 1-0 and 3-1, saw its once-woeful penalty kill shut down the Portland power play for the second straight night, and at times displayed the kind of explosive form most expected when this cast was assembled.

But Norfolk struggled to solve Pirates goalie Jhonas Enroth, who turned aside 35 shots in his second straight dazzling effort. On Friday, Enroth made 29 saves while shutting out Norfolk 4-0.

As a result, the ending was all-too-familiar for the Admirals (1-6-1-2), who are now winless in five games at Scope and in their last seven overall.

Too often a slow-starting team, the Admirals jumped on the Pirates from the opening faceoff and went on to outshoot Portland 18-8 in the opening 20 minutes.

Norfolk was unable to get anything past Enroth, however. And despite being outplayed, the Pirates got a goal from Mark Mancari with six seconds left and sneaked out of the period with a 1-0 lead.

Creating traffic in front of the Pirates' net allowed Jay Rosehill to pull the Admirals even at one at 5:26 of the second period. But Tim Kennedy and Colton Fretter answered for the Pirates - Fretter on a top-shelf wrist shot after a brilliant toe-drag move - to seemingly leave Portland in command.

On Friday, the Admirals appeared to hang their heads when they fell behind. This time, however, they dug in.

Brandon Segal got the Admirals to within one at 17:55 of the second period. And less than three minutes into the third period, Segal brought the crowd of 3,438 to its feet with his sixth goal of the season for a 3-3 tie.

The rest of the night belonged to the Pirates, however. Darche's game-winner came at 6:51; Felix Schutz added some insurance a little under five minutes later by beating Admirals goalie Mike McKenna on a breakaway.

McKenna, who made his second start of the season and first at Scope, was better than his numbers - 25 saves, 30 shots - but not quite the equal of Portland's Enroth.

The Admirals will return to action on Friday and Saturday night when they host Rockford at Scope.

Paul White, 757-418-1447, paul.white@pilotonline.com