MANCHESTER, N.H. — There’s no room for failure now. The Portland Pirates  are perched on the brink of extinction after

Monday night’s gut wrenching 2-1 overtime loss to the Manchester Monarchs before 2,130 at Verizon Wireless Arena.

Bud Holloway’s goal at the 2 minute mark of the extra session served to stuff the Pirates into an 0-3 chasm in the best of seven Atlantic Division Calder Cup semifinal series.

A loss tonight in Game 4, to be played here, will put harsh end to what has been a stellar season.

“It’s one game at a time,” said veteran winger Jeff Cowan. “If we win tonight, we’ll take it back home (Thursday). You never know. We’ll just keep grinding it out.”

Said Pirates’ coach Kevin Dineen, “This series has been tilted in their favor. Unfortunately it tilted their way on the last play.”

That fateful play, Holloway’s third straight game winning goal, put the Pirates in an unprecedented bind.

Portland has never lost the first three games of a best of seven set, much less try to come back from such a deficit.

“We put ourselves in a big hole,” said Cowan. “It’s been done before (by others). We’ve got a good group of guys and we’re going to make a push.”

Portland pushed harder in Game 3 than in the first two, even after falling behind 1-0 on Marc-Andre Cliche’s goal just 35 seconds into the contest.

The Bucs rebounded in the second stanza with their best period of the series (so far), outshooting the Monarchs 19-7, and knotting the score, 1-1, on Mike Weber’s power play goal at 7:43.

Weber was stationed in the high slot, and when goalie Jonathan Bernier kicked out Luke Adam’s stuff attempt, Weber collared the rebound and rattled it home.

“It was just determination,” said Cowan. “We just kept coming and kept coming. We got back to playing our game. You could see that in the second period. I think we played a real solid game all around.”

Still, the game, and perhaps the entire season, turned South early in the extra session, when a mixup between Weber and his rookie defense partner Drew Schiestel left Holloway open in the left circle.

Holloway, as he did in the two previous games, potted the decisive goal.

“The puck’s just been coming to me lately,” said Holloway. “There’s no secret design or anything. I’m finding the right spot. It’s been good.”

EMPTY NETTERS: Manchester appeared to have taken a 2-1 lead late in the

second, when Alec Martinez slammed in a blue line blast. However, the

goal was wiped out by a goaltender interference penalty to Kevin

Westgarth. ”¦The overtime period on something of a comical note, when

the teams took to the wrong ends  after skating out of the dressing

room. After consulting with the AHL rule book, referee Mark Lemelin

motioned for the teams to switch sides. ”¦  Dineen made one line up

change from Saturday’s Game 2, inserting winger Philip Gogulla in place

of center Felix Schutz. ”¦ Manchester had hoped to welcome back injured

All-Star defenseman Slava Voyvnov, who took the pre game skate.

However, Voynov was a game time scratch.

— Contact Staff Writer Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.