Pirates plundered in back-to-back losses

Any of those would have allowed the Picton Pirates to gain a valuable point or two last weekend. As such, these high-leverage tangibles tend to escape the clutches of a young team and the Provincial Junior squad came away with pair of 5-2 losses.

On Thursday night at home, Picton found themselves down 2-1 to the visiting Frankford Huskies after two periods. A Joey Coates powerplay goal early in the third period was enough to propel the guests past the Pirates.

After a scoreless first period, Gage Butcher got Frankford on the board early with his 17th of the year.

The Pirates would answer just over three minutes later when Ian Harrison drove to the Huskies net and batted in his 5th of the season at 5:40.

Both teams were playing good hockey but Mr. Coates made a smart shot to the far post with under three minutes to go in the second stanza. Carrying Place’s Keenan Wiles was there to deposit a rebound at 17:39, giving Frankford a lead they would never relinquish.

Early in the third, the pair would repeat their magic on the powerplay at 3:43.

Picton’s Cole Stevenson scored shorthanded at 5:17 to bring the locals to within one — but Ben Smith’s 6th of the season at the mid-way mark was enough to push the Huskies out of harm’s way at 4-2. Mr. Coates would bag an empty netter with under a minute left.

Picton’s Nic McGrayne made 37 saves.

A night later in Napanee, nearly the same recipe spelled disaster for the Pirates.

Picton opened the scoring in the first as Mr. Stevenson and Aiden Treverton set up Nick Kirby’s 12th of the campaign at the 11:52 mark of the first.

But Picton again found themselves down a goal at the start of the third period against the Raiders. Marshall MacFarland’s 13th of the year 1:32 into the period pushed Napanee ahead to 3-1 but the Pirates would strike back quickly.

Owen Findlay sent Zach Brooks in on Raiders netminder Logan Vale and Mr. Brooks made no mistake, firing a bullet past the Trenton native in the home goal to get Picton back to within a point with just over 17 minutes left to play.

But then Picton started to beat a well-established path to the sin bin and Blake Aylesworth’s power play goal at 7:15 proved to be the dagger Napanee needed. Cole Campbell had an empty netter with 15 seconds left.

In the Picton net, Ethan Schwarz made 49 saves as was chosen as the third star of the game.

The Pirates are back in action on Thursday when they host Port Hope. They travel to Frankford on Saturday.