The Portland Pirates won their second straight game as Brett Hextall scored his first two goals of the year in the 5-2 victory over the Albany Devils at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.

“It was a tough, hard-fought, competitive game,” said Portland Pirates head coach Ray Edwards. “Our guys battle hard, our goaltender was excellent tonight, and special teams were good.”

Portland entered the third period with a 2-1 lead, but Albany tied the contest up at two as rookie Reid Boucher scored his second of the year just past the five minute mark.

Hextall responded nearly five minutes later with Kyle Hagel picking up the lone assist.

“It was a good play by Kyle Hagel to get the puck to the net,” Edwards stated. “(Hextall) was in the right place and found a way to beat (Scott Wedgewood). It was a big goal for us because they just tied the game up to get some momentum.”

The Pirates would pile two more goals, both empty netters from Hextall and Jordan Szwarz, both in the final minute of play.

“We did a nice job tonight managing momentum and getting momentum back,” Edwards said. “Our goaltender was key and our penalty kill was key. We took a four minute high-sticking penalty late in the third period that we needed to kill off. Our guys did a really good job of doing that.”

Jordan Martook gave Portland a 1-0 lead into the first intermission with a shorthanded tally at the 6:55 mark of the first period.

Scott Timmins tied the contest up nearly halfway through the second period with the assists going to Cam Janssen and Chris McKelvie.

The Pirates answered at the 9:55 mark of the middle stanza on the power play. Gilbert Brule potted his second of the season with the assists going to Daine Todd and Szwarz.

Portland went 1 of 5 on the man advantage whil Albany went 0 of 6.

Second year goaltender Mark Visentin made 34 saves for the Pirates. His counterpart Scott Wedgewood stopped 20 shots in net.

The Pirates return to the Androscoggin Bank Colisee Wednesday at 7 p.m. to face the St. John’s IceCaps.