AHL Manchester Monarchs

Garon Leads Monarchs To Fifth Victory In Six Games

January 22, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release


ALBANY, NY – Goaltender Mathieu Garon finished with 31 saves and his 21st win of the season as the Manchester Monarchs topped the Albany River Rats, 6-2, before 4,002 fans at the Pepsi Arena on Saturday night. With the win, their fifth in six games, the Monarchs improved to 31-8-3-1 and 66 points on the season. The Monarchs, who hold the best record in the 28-team American Hockey League, lead the second place Hartford Wolf pack by three points in the Atlantic Division.

The River Rats, now winless in their last four games (0-3-0-1), remained in seventh place in the AHL's East Division with a record of 10-23-4-5 and 29 points.

Left wing Dustin Brown, center Jeff Miles, right wing George Parros and right wing Petr Kanko all had first period goals as the Monarchs matched a season high for goals in a period. Brown opened the scoring with his 19th goal of the season, registered at 6:05. Brown slipped his shot by goaltender Ari Ahonen (30 shots, 24 saves) a split second after Parros stole the puck at center ice. Parros had the only assist on the play.

Miles made it 2-0 Monarchs with his first career AHL goal, scored on a rebound at 14:35 of the period. Defenseman Denis Grebeshkov and left wing Chris Schmidt shared assists on the goal. Miles was skating in his third game with the Monarchs. He was recalled from the Monarchs ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals, on Tuesday.

Parros and Kanko struck for goals just 60 seconds apart in the closing moments of the period to make it 4-0. Parros redirected a slap shot from defenseman Joe Rullier into the Albany net at 17:19, and Kanko stuffed a feed from right wing Dan Welch past Ahonen at 18:19. Center Michael Cammalleri, the Monarchs leading scorer (28-33=61), collected the second assist on Parros' fourth goal of the season. Welch had the only assist on Kanko's fourth goal of the season.

Albany cut the deficit to two goals while out-shooting the Monarchs 18-9 in a wild second period that included several outstanding saves by Garon (33 shots, 31 saves).

NHL veteran left wing Dean McAmmond had a goal and an assist in the period, and he made it a 4-1 contest with a shorthanded goal at 4:50. Left wing Ilkka Pikkarainen and defenseman Alex Brooks each assisted on McAmmond's ninth goal of the season.

McAmmond, the River Rats leading scorer (9-24=33), notched his second point of the period when he assisted on a power play goal from left wing Ahren Nittel at 10:59. Right wing Aleksander Suglobov also earned an assist as Nittel recorded his sixth goal of the season.

The Monarchs slowed the River Rats attempted comeback when right wing Brad Smyth set-up Cammalleri for his league-leading 28th goal of the season 6:37 into the third period. For Cammalleri, it was his fifth goal in six games.

The Monarchs iced the contest less than 10 minutes later with the third goal of the season for center David Steckel, who redirected a shot from Miles into the Albany net at 15:46.

With the win, his fourth in a row, Garon improved his record to 21-7-1 on the season. His 21 wins match an AHL career high established when Garon was skating with the Quebec Citadelles during the 2001-02 season. With the loss, Ahonen's record dropped to 4-14-1.

The Monarchs will finish up a weekend of hockey when they meet the Worcester IceCats on Sunday, January 23 at 4:05 p.m. at the DCU Center.

The Monarchs next home game is scheduled for Friday, January 28 against the Portland Pirates (7:35 p.m.).

Ticket Availability: 65 (singles) seats in the Gold level and 1,000 seats in the Silver level remain for the Monarchs game against the Pirates on January 28.

80's Night With The Monarchs: Don't miss the totally awesome 80's Party following the Monarchs game against the Portland Pirates on Friday, January 28. Come party with the players in the Grand Ballroom at the Radisson Hotel. Tickets are only $10 and can be purchased by calling the Monarchs at (603) 626-7825. Fans must be 21 years of age or older to attend this radical party with the players.

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.

Catch all of the play-by-play action of Monarchs hockey with Ken Cail on the Monarchs Radio Network (WGIR-AM 610, Manchester; WGIN-AM 930, Rochester; WGIP-AM 1540, Exeter; WTSL-AM 1400, Lebanon) and at www.monarchshockey.com.



American Hockey League Stories from January 22, 2005


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