AHL Manchester Monarchs

Monarchs Hold Off Lock Monsters, Win 11th Straight

Published on November 28, 2004 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release


LOWELL, MA – Right wing Tom Kostopoulos scored the game-winning goal with just 1:48 remaining in regulation as the Manchester Monarchs escaped with a 5-4 win over the Lowell Lock Monsters at the Tsongas Arena on Sunday night.

With the win, their 11th straight, the Monarchs improved to 18-1-0-0 (36 points) on the season and stayed 10 points ahead of the second place Hartford Wolf Pack (12-5-1-1, 26 points) in the American Hockey League's Atlantic Division.

The Wolf Pack shut out the Providence Bruins, 6-0, at the Hartford Civic Center on Sunday night.

The loss was the second in a row for the Lock Monsters, who dropped to 8-7-1-1 (18 points) on the season.

Kostopoulos registered his league-leading fifth game winner of the season seconds after a Monarchs face off win in the offensive zone. Left wing Chris Schmidt and right wing Brad Smyth each earned assists on the 10th overall goal of the season for Kostopoulos.

The game winner came just 17 seconds after Lowell had tied the contest with the second goal of the game for right wing Chuck Kobasew. Kobasew slammed a rebound off the end boards past goaltender Mathieu Garon (35 shots, 31 saves) at 17:55. Defenseman Danny Richmond and center Eric Staal each had assists on Kobasew's team-leading 13th goal.

For the 18th time in 19 games this season, the Monarchs scored the first goal. This time the first tally of the night went to defenseman Mike Weaver, who' s shot changed direction through traffic before finding the back of the net at 2:49.

Goaltender Brent Krahn (41 shots, 36 saves) was unable to stop Weaver's shot, but he bounced back to stop everything else fired his way by the Monarchs in the period. Included in his 12 first period saves was a nifty glove stop on a penalty shot from center Michael Cammalleri at the 13:15 mark.

The Lock Monsters tied the game on the power play at 14:26 when a left circle shot from center Mike Zigomanis clipped the shoulder of Garon and bounced into the Monarchs net. Staal and forward Jim Henkel shared assists on the fifth goal of the season for Zigomanis.

The Monarchs nearly regained the lead with an early second period power play as Cammalleri sent left wing Dustin Brown into the Lowell zone on a breakaway. But Krahn snuffed out the scoring chance with a left toe save 41 seconds into the period.

The Lock Monsters took the lead just 22 seconds later thanks to Kobasew, who fired a hard wrist shot into the top right corner of the Manchester net for his 12th goal of the season. Defenseman Ritchie Regehr assisted on Kobasew's first short-handed goal of the season.

The Monarchs took advantage of another deflected puck to score their second goal, and just like in the first stanza, a Monarchs defenseman was credited with his first goal of the season on the play. This time the goal went to Tim Gleason, who's left point slap shot bounced off a Lowell player in the left circle and then slipped through the five-hole of Krahn at 10:07. Left wing Petr Kanko and center Matt Ryan each collected an assist on Gleason's first professional goal.

The Monarchs capitalized on their fifth power play of the night to take a 3-2 third period lead. Gleason, who had no goals in his first 83 games as a professional (47 with the Los Angeles Kings and 36 with the Monarchs) slammed home a corner feed from center Yanick Lehoux for his second goal of the night. Kostopoulos also notched an assist on the goal, scored at 7:19.

The Lock Monsters tied the game again with their own power play tally, credited to right wing Chad Larose less than three minutes later. Larose registered his fourth goal of the season by redirecting a point shot from defenseman Mike Commodore at 10:11. Zigomanis notched his second point of the night with an assist on the play.

Ryan, who entered Sunday's contest with two consecutive game-winning goals, nearly had his third straight game winner as he gave the Monarchs a 4-3 lead with his fifth goal of the season at 16:33. But Kobasew scored his second goal of the night just over a minute later to set-up the Kostopoulos game winner.

Garon (12-1-0) took the win, his 12th in 13 appearances this season. Krahn (5-3-0) took the loss, his first in five games.

A crowd of 3,121 took in Sunday's game at the Tsongas Arena.

The Monarchs return to action when they meet the Providence Bruins on Friday, December 3 at 7:05 p.m. at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. After that, the Monarchs welcome the Bruins to the Verizon Wireless Arena for a 7:35 p.m. contest on Saturday, December 4. Catch all of the play-by-play action 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.

Ticket Availability: Single seats in the Gold level and 1,000 seats in the Silver level remain for Saturday's game against the Bruins.

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 November 28, 2004


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