If the Fort Erie Falcons weren't concerned about their lack of scoring before last night, perhaps they should be as the losing streak has now reached six games.
Torey Krug put Portland ahead 1-0 about halfway through the second period and Patrick Marleau scored on an empty net in the final minute to give Portland the victory last night in Fort Erie.
The game's first star Scott Darling made 40 saves in the Portland net, while Fort Erie went zero for five on the power play. Fort Erie's power play is now clicking at just 12.3%; good for fifth worst in the entire CCHL.
After the game, the team remained pretty upbeat despite a sixth straight defeat.
"We just aren't getting the bounces right now" said Blake Wheeler post game. "If we start getting bounces, we'll score in bunches with the talent we have in this room. I think in the long term this streak is going to help us understand what it takes to win regularly. We had 40 shots tonight. Eventually these are going to go in; every goalie won't stop 40 shots a night."
While the players were upbeat, we thought the Falcons' management group would be a little more critical of the play on the ice.
To our surprise, we were wrong.
"We have 40 shots on goal tonight. We haven't been awful defensively in this stretch aside from two games where we blew late leads. It's about 60 minutes of good hockey in this league. We can't take shifts off, but we aren't getting the bounces right now. If we start getting the bounces, this team could be scary" quipped GM Matt Young outside of the dressing room.
Young continued "I've made a few changes and the guys have to get used to one another. I'm confident that will come. If you come to practice tomorrow though, don't expect us to bag skate the guys. They are already frustrated enough and we aren't going to kick them when they are down. If this group figures it out though, they can......no forget that, they WILL be scary."
Fort Erie will attempt to end the losing streak tonight at home against Seattle. While the team would not say last night, expect Phillip Grubauer to get the call between the pipes for the home squad on Wednesday night.
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