Manchester Ends Phantoms' Win Streak

Published on December 14, 2013 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release


On a snowy and stormy night in the North Country, the visiting Manchester Monarchs stormed into the Glens Falls Civic Center for a 5-3 victory on Saturday. The first-place team in the Eastern Conference received a pair of goals from Jordan Weal to end Adirondack's three-game win streak.

Nick Cousins, Cullen Eddy and Rob Bordson scored for the Phantoms and rookie goalie Carsen Chubak impressed in his AHL debut in a relief appearance with 15 saves on 16 shots but Adirondack's late-game comeback efforts would not be enough. Petr Straka had assists on all three goals and Oliver Lauridsen had two helpers.

The Phantoms fell to 12-11-2 with the loss while Manchester, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, improved their impressive record to 18-5-5. Cal Heeter took the loss for Adirondack with an atypical not-great performance for the second-year pro out of Ohio State. Heeter had been tremendous in starting the last five straight games while Yann Danis is sidelined with a leg injury. He had allowed just five goals in his terrific five-game run before this contest that appeared to simply not be his night.

Manchester raced out to a 2-0 lead in the first period as Adirondack put themselves in penalty trouble with a succession of infractions. The Monarchs scored a 5-on-3 goal from Andrew Bodnarchuk five-and-a-half into the game on a shot that appeared to deflect off a Phantoms defenseman's body.

The Monarchs were outshooting the Phantoms 12-2 in the first period and head coach Terry Murray used his timeout early in the game to try to change things around. But a late first-period goal 5-on-5 by Nick Deslauriers that snuck through the left-arm of Cal Heeter gave the Monarchs a 2-0 lead at the first break.

"Tonight, obviously was not good enough," Murray said. "Right from the very beginning, our lack of discipline put us in a real (bind) with all the power plays they had in the first period...four for them. And then we end up with a very big kill in the first period where we gave up that second goal. That goal can not go in. We can't give that goal up. All the momentum is on their side. We need time to settle things down and get our 5-on-5 game going."

The Phantoms were playing better after the timeout even though they allowed another goal. And Adirondack came out strong to open the second period with a number of quality chances on Monarchs' goalie J.F. Berube. But Petr Straka, Matt Mangene and others were all to be denied. And shortly thereafter, Jordan Weal would power home a drive from the slot after Brandon Kozun dug it away from behind the Adirondack goal and the Phantoms suddenly found themselves down 3-0.

Nick Cousins got back in the goal-column a couple minutes later depositing a backhand on the right of the cage following the rebound of a slapshot by Oliver Lauridsen to close the margin to 3-1. But after Scott Sabourin beat Heeter to make the score 4-1 before the midway point, Coach Murray called on Carsen Chubak to finish the game. The rookie from Niagara University had not played since October when he saw action in two ECHL games in Greenville, SC.

"I don't if that's exactly called a debut," Chubak said. "It all happened pretty quick there. Kind of went into the second, just kind of went from there. Played a lot of hockey in my career. Just seemed like another game out there. It's a lot different once you come out on the ice."

Chubak was tested early. A Monarchs forward collided into them sending both careening away. And Chubak had to make two quick saves back to back right at the start. He made a couple other impressive and rather scrambly saves before Jordan Weal would fire one through fom the left side eight minutes into the third to push the lead to 5-1.

Cullen Eddy scored his first of the year for the Phantoms with eight minutes left on a long slapshot from center-point and Rob Bordson potted the rebound of a Ben Holmstrom power-play drive with 22 seconds remaining for a closer final score in the end.

Adirondack outshot Manchester 35-33 in the game and also outshot them 33-21 from the midway point of the first when Terry Murray used his timeout. The Monarchs had an early 12-2 shot lead. Manchester was 2-for-6 on the power play while Adirondack was 1-for-3.

The Phantoms organization cancelled their postgame open-skate appearance with the players due to the snowy weather so that more fans will be able to participate. The team will announce a make-up date for the promotion in the near future and the Phantoms thank our fans for their understanding.

The game was Adirondack's last Glens Falls appearance before the Holiday Break. The team deaprts early this week for Norfolk, Virginia taking the Admirals in a weekend set next Friday and Saturday. Norfolk currently holds down the eighth-place position in the Eastern Conference standings and are four points ahead of Adirondack going into the big series.

The Phantoms return home on Saturday, December 28 against the Providence Bruins on Youth T-Shirt Night for the first 1,000 kids age 14 and younger presented by UniFirst and will also host the Worcester Sharks on Tuesday, December 31 at 5:00 in their traditional New Year's Eve game that has been an AHL event in Glens Falls since the beginning days of the Adirondack Red Wings.

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