Garon Leads Monarchs Past Pirates
January 16, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release
PORTLAND, ME â Goaltender Mathieu Garon finished with 31 saves and his team-leading 19th win as the Manchester Monarchs beat the Portland Pirates, 3-1, before 4,860 fans at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Sunday night.
The Monarchs (29-7-3-1, 62 points), winners of three straight games, opened a three-point lead over the second place Hartford Wolf Pack (28-10-1-2, 59 points) in the American Hockey League's Atlantic Division with the victory. The Wolf Pack did not play on Sunday.
The loss was the second straight for the Pirates (15-20-3-4, 37 points), ranked sixth in the division.
A high sticking major penalty to Portland right wing Graham Mink led to the Monarchs first goal, scored by right wing Petr Kanko on the power play at 18:22 of the opening period. Center Michael Cammalleri and right wing Tom Kostopoulos each assisted on Kanko's third goal of the season. Kanko, a rookie and third-round (66th overall) selection of the Los Angeles Kings in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, redirected Cammalleri's wrist shot from the left circle.
Defenseman Denis Grebeshkov, victimized by Mink's high sticking infraction, received medical attention and returned to action in the second period.
The Monarchs, once again aided by a Portland high sticking penalty, doubled their lead with a power play goal from right wing Brad Smyth just 49 seconds into the middle period. Smyth completed a rush into the Portland zone by backhanding his 12th goal of the season over the blocker pad of goaltender Maxime Ouellet (25 shots, 23 saves). Left win Noah Clarke recorded the only assist on the play.
The Pirates made it a 2-1 game with their own power play goal, scored late in the second period by center Jakub Klepis. Klepis scooped a loose puck and deposited it into the Manchester net a split second after Garon (32 shots, 31 saves) stopped a left circle drive from right wing Brian Willsie. The goal, scored at 15:33, was his ninth of the season for Klepis.
The Monarchs appeared to take a 3-1 lead midway through the third period when Smyth took a center ice pass from Cammalleri and scored a breakaway. But, after a lengthy discussion between referee Dean Morton and his linesmen, the goal was waved off because of a two-line pass.
The Pirates tried to tie the game with a late push by replacing Ouellet with an extra attacker with 1:54 remaining in the game. Cammalleri, however, iced the game with his team-leading 26th goal, scored into an empty net with an assist to left wing Dustin Brown with 50 seconds left in regulation.
With the win, the Monarchs improved to 4-0-0-0 against the Pirates this season. The Pirates have only scored two goals against the Monarchs in the four games.
The Monarchs return to action when they host the Worcester IceCats at 7:05 p.m. at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Wednesday, January 19.
Ticket Availability: 300 seats in the Gold level and 3,000 seats in the Silver level remain for Friday's game against the IceCats.
Fans in need of Monarchs tickets may purchase them in person at the Verizon Wireless Arena box office, at any TicketMaster location, by phone at (603) 868-7300 or on-line at www.ticketmaster.com. The box office opens at 10:00 a.m.
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American Hockey League Stories from January 16, 2005
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