A night after downing the Frankford Huskies at Huff Estates Arena, the Picton Pirates found the tank empty in a close contest versus the host Napanee Raiders.

The split leaves Picton’s Provincial Junior Hockey League mark at 17-13-3 which has them trailing the Port Hope Panthers by two points but the Bucs have three games in hand on the Cats heading into the final three weeks of the season.

Zack Brooks (Gazette Staff)

On Thursday, the Pirates got out to 2-0 lead through the opening 20 minutes and cruised past the Huskies.

Picton’s Zack Brooks opened the scoring at the 3:25 of the first period with his ninth goal of the season on an early Picton power play. Rookie Gerrit Kempers had a setup on the play.

Later in the frame, Nate Woods made a nice dispy doodle at the Frankford blue line and picked the corner on Huskies starter Haydn Candler at the 14:00 minute mark.

In the second, Picton extended the lead to 3-0 when Ian Harrison shovelled home his ninth of the season from the lip of the crease at 5:03.

Frankford got on the board at 8:17 when Curtis Dicks found fellow rear guard Parker Stewart at 8:17 to make it 3-1 during a 5-on-3 Huskies power play.

But Picton had a dagger at the midway point of the frame when Kempers spotted veteran Jack Dow going to the net undefended and the Wallbridge native beat Candler five hole at 11:47 to make it a 4-1 game.

In the opening minute of the third, Landon McLellan potted his 19th of the year to go along with three helpers to extend Picton’s margin to 5-1.

The Huskies bagged another power play goal at the midway point of the third when Karsten Leonard scored his tenth of the year at 11:03.

The Pirates would finalize the scoring with Woods’ second of the game thanks to a feed from Harrison to the high slot at 13:10.

Brady Spry made 33 saves for his 12th win of the season.

The next night in Napanee, Picton was full credit for battling the Raiders and were close to the hosts for most of the contest but the bounces conspired to keep the locals from securing at least a point.

Nate Woods had a pair of goals Thursday night. (Gazette Staff)

Napanee’s Connor Hobin potted his first of the season firing the puck off a Picton defender and past Spry at 9:59.

In the second, Napanee had another unassisted tally off the stick of captain Noah Westwater at 8:35.

But just under a minute later, McLellan bagged his 20th of the year at 9:24 thanks to helpers from Woods and Hunter Matthysse.

Hobin’s second since coming to Napanee from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Gatineau Flames at 10:15 was, again, unassisted and made it a 3-1 game in favour of the hosts.

Picton would claw back at the 13:42 mark when Kempers fired home his fifth of the year. The tally gave the Ameliashburgh native 13 points over his last eight games.

But the Pirates couldn’t nail down the Raiders heading into the second intermission and Marshall McFarland beat Spry at the 17:44 mark to make it 4-2 Napanee.

Neither side would light the lamp in the third as Spry would make 34 stops in a losing effort.

Picton hosts Campbellford on Thursday before playing in Frankford on Saturday.

The Rebels host Picton on Sunday and then the Pirates and Huskies hook up on Tuesday night in Frankford for a game that will be televised on Your TV Quinte.