The Portland Pirates game against the Albany Devils on Saturday afternoon came down to a five-minute stretch in the middle of the second period.

The Devils scored three times in the period en route to a 4-1 victory at Times Union Center in Albany.

“The first period was good. Again, we took two penalties in the first and we took four in the second,” Portland Pirates head coach Ray Edwards said. “To me, that’s unfortunately the big part of the game for number of reasons. They didn’t score any power-play goals, but they scored right at the end at those power plays, so in essence they are power-play goals.”

Edwards also added that his team took four penalties in the offensive zone that killed the Pirates’ momentum.

Joe Whitney, the AHL’s fourth leading scorer, broke the ice at the 9:35 mark of the middle frame, with Scott Timmins and rookie Reece Scarlett picking up the assists.

Timmins picked up his second assist of the evening when defenseman Seth Helgeson knocked in his first goal of the season at the 11:10 mark of the period. Pirates defenseman Mathieu Brodeur just finished serving a minor penalty for delay of game.

Mike Sislo potted his ninth goal of the year with 5:36 remaining, with Kelly Zajec and Harri Pesonen notching the assists. It came two seconds after Lucas Lessio came out of the box for slashing.

“I thought 5-on-5 we played a pretty good hockey game, but unfortunately we had to kill eight penalties and that’s way too many,” Edwards said.

Pirates leading goal scorer Andy Miele put Portland on the board with 4:14 remaining, with Chris Brown and Brandon McMillan setting the goal up.

The Pirates outshot the Devils in the third period but couldn’t get anything past goalkeeper Keith Kinkaid who made a total of 38 saves in the game.

Edwards said Kinkaid did well in goal for the Devils.

Albany’s captain Rod Pelley added the empty-netter with six seconds remaining in the contest. Portland was 0-for-3 on the man advantage. Mark Visentin made 23 saves in the loss.

The Pirates return to the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Tuesday for the New Year’s Eve game at 5:30 p.m. against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Former Lewiston Maineiacs forward Kirill Kabanov is expected to return to the Colisee with the Sound Tigers.

The New York Islanders’ third-round draft pick in 2010 has two goals in 13 games this season with Bridgeport. He has also spent time with the Islanders ECHL affiliate the Stockton Thunder where he had four goals and four assists in nine games.