Falcons move into 2nd place tie

PORTLAND, Maine (WWLP) - The Springfield Falcons beat the Portland Pirates 2-1 on Sunday afternoon at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine as they finished off a perfect weekend at 2-0. The Falcons have now moved into a second place tie in the Atlantic Division with a record of 7-5-2-1 good for 17 points.

In a spirited first period, Portland's Philip Gogulla opened the scoring at 12:34 of the first frame when he tallied his second goal of the year.

There were a pair of altercations in the opening period when Kip Brennan and Joe DiPenta dropped the gloves, followed by Matt Nickerson and Hans Benson going toe-to-toe. Fans may remember it was DiPenta who earned a suspension early in the year for slashing Brennan on opening night.

In the second period, the Falcons evened the score at 1-1 just 44-seconds into the middle frame when Ryan O'Marra scored his second marker of the year. Springfield took their first lead of the game at the 6:00 mark of the middle stanza when Colin McDonald's slap shot beat Portland goaltender Jean-Philipe Lamoureux giving the Falcons a 2-1 advantage.

Springfield goaltender Devan Dubnyk was very steady stopping 39 of 40 shots, including a breakaway late in the second period.