Devils Go Down in Manchester
February 9, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release
MANCHESTER, NH - Goaltender Martin Jones earned his second shutout of the season with 19 saves as the Manchester Monarchs blanked the Albany Devils, 3-0, at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Sunday evening.
Manchester (31-14-2-5) leads the Atlantic Division with 69 points. Albany (25-16-3-4) sits in second place in the Northeast Division with 57 points.
"(Jones) didn't have a lot of work so it was a good thing we helped him out there in the tail end and kept getting pucks deep," said Monarchs Head Coach Mark Morris. "And the shots he did face, he didn't look like he had to work all that hard, which is nice. He certainly pulled us out of the fire more times than not, and I thought our guys played a pretty thorough game in our (defensive) zone for him."
Right wing Sean Backman scored on the first shot of the afternoon to put the Monarchs on the board just 1:08 into the game. In the offensive zone, defenseman Derek Forbort chipped the puck in the air from the blueline. Backman caught the puck high in the slot and skated down toward the right face-off circle. At the hash marks, Backman ripped a shot over the blocker side of Devils goaltender Scott Wedgewood to score his seventh goal of the season.
At 4:16 of the second period, left wing Andy Andreoff doubled the Monarchs lead to 2-0. In the Devils attempt to exit their defensive zone, Andreoff laid a hit on one of his opponents along the left-side boards to turn the puck over. Once back on his skates, Andreoff angled toward the net until forward Hunter Bishop slipped him the puck. He faked a shot then cut across the crease to draw the puck to his backhand and flip it in for his eighth goal of the season.
With a minute and forty seconds remaining in the second, the Monarchs increased their lead to 3-0. Defenseman Jeff Schultz held the puck outside of the right face-off circle. Schultz found center Jordan Weal near the left post, who one-timed the puck past Wedgewood for his 11th goal of the season.
Jones (12-3-2) collected his second shutout and 12th win of the season, stopping all 19 shots faced. Wedgewood (7-10-2) made 26 saves on 29 shots in the defeat.
Manchester was 0-for-6 on the power play. Albany went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
Notables: Manchester's win, coupled with Springfield's loss, elevates the Monarchs to the top of the league with 69 points...Left wing Nick Deslauriers' season-high point streak ended at six games...Goaltender Martin Jones collected his second shutout of the season...Defenseman Jeff Schultz earned his first multi-point game of the year.
The Monarchs host the Worcester Sharks at 7:00 p.m. at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday, February 14th. Catch all of the play-by-play action of Monarchs hockey with Ken Cail on Monarchs Radio Network WGIR AM 610, WGIRAM.com, and at manchestermonarchs.com presented by Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
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