(playoff quarter finals, first leg)
Pirates more than matched their hosts for the first fifty minutes of this quarter final tie, before dropping their guard in the final ten minutes to concede four goals and leave themselves with a hazardous second leg in two weeks’ time, when they will now have to beat the Comets by three goals on aggregate to progress to the playoff finals.
After a scoreless opening spell, the game burst into life as the visitors went ahead just on the eight minute mark as Abercrombie shot past Shearer to break the deadlock, but they were ahead for only twenty seconds as Comets went straight to the other end and equalised through McBean. However, Finnish star Sami Harju restored Pirates’ lead within another ninety seconds, with assistance from Kenneth, and the score remained the same until the eighteenth minute, when Abercrombie netted his second to stretch the lead to 3-1, but within a minute Pokorny had pulled it back to a one goal game, to finish the scoring for the session.
After a quiet start to the middle period Pokorny bagged his second in 27 minutes to tie the scores, but within a minute Walker scored with an unassisted effort to restore Pirates’ advantage, and while both sides took penalties the extra man made no difference to the score, and the visitors went for the second break nursing a narrow 4-3 lead.
With a one goal advantage, and a home second leg to follow, Pirates were looking good for a win in the tie, but after a scoreless opening 10 minutes in the session, the roof fell in on the visitors. Beattie equalised again for the visitors, and while Conor Spiers restored the lead inside a minute, the hosts responded with three strikes in four minutes through Robertson and a double by McBean, the latter completing his hat trick in the process, and while Pirates did go for another goal to narrow the gap, they were unable to do so, thus giving Comets what could prove to be a critical two goal cushion at 7-5 for the deciding leg on Saturday 28 March at 6.30pm at Braehead Arena.