AHL Manchester Monarchs

Monarchs Report

Published on January 15, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release


LAST WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS

Vs. Portland (1/12): Goaltender Jason LaBarbera stopped 27-of-28 shots while centers Patrick O'Sullivan and Matt Ryan tallied in the Manchester Monarchs 2-1 victory to sink the Portland Pirates at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday night. Right wing Colby Genoway scored the lone goal for the Pirates. Netminder Mike Wall took the loss for the Pirates with 30 saves. Manchester went 0-for-5 on the power play. Portland was 0-for-7 with the man advantage.

Vs. Hartford (1/14): The Manchester Monarchs eight game home winning streak was snapped by a 4-1 defeat to the Hartford Wolf Pack at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Sunday night. Defenseman Mike Weaver scored the lone goal for the Monarchs, his first of the season. Right wing Ryan Callahan scored twice and defenseman Daniel Girardi tallied his second goal of the season, all on the power play for Hartford. Left wing Nigel Dawes finished off the Monarchs with an empty netter. Monarchs goaltender Jason LaBarbera took the loss with 24 saves. Wolf Pack netminder Stephen Valiquette earned the win with 30 saves on 31 shots. Manchester went 0-for-6 on the power play. Hartford was 3-for-7 with the man advantage.

MONARCHS NEWS & NOTES

The Monarchs (22-12-6-1) are in first place in the Atlantic Division with 51 points.

Manchester has a home record of 13-5-4-0 and a road record of 9-7-2-1.

The Monarchs power play is ranked sixth in the AHL after 41 games with a 19.1-percent man advantage scoring percentage. Manchester has scored 42 goals on 220 opportunities so far this season with the man advantage.

Manchester's penalty kill is ranked 20th in the league after letting in 45 goals on 226 situations when the team has been down a man for an 80.1-percentage.

At home, the Monarchs had an eight game winning streak at the Verizon Wireless Arena snapped by a 4-1 loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack on Sunday, January 14. Manchester was also undefeated in regulation in their last 14 games at home with a record of 11-0-3-0 before the loss to Hartford.

The American Hockey League announced on Tuesday that Monarchs goaltender Jason LaBarbera and rookie defenseman T.J. Kemp have been selected to the Canadian team and center Patrick O'Sullivan and rookie defenseman Peter Harrold have been selected to the PlanetUSA team for the 2007 Rbk Hockey AHL All-Star Classic, which takes place January 28-29 in Toronto, Ontario. LaBarbera will be the starting goaltender for Team Canada.

Left wing Noah Clarke leads the Monarchs in scoring with 30 points (14-16=30).

Clarke's 14 goals are tied with O'Sullivan for the team's lead.

Clarke leads the Monarchs all-time in goals (75), points (172) and power play goals (25) and he is tied with former Monarchs center Michael Cammalleri for second place in assists with 97 each.

O'Sullivan (14-13=27) is in second place in scoring for the Monarchs with 27 points.

Left wing Matt Moulson (8-15=23) is ranked third on the Monarchs roster with 23 points.

Right wing John Zeiler (10-11=21) is in fourth place on the Monarchs squad.

Zeiler leads the Monarchs in the plus/minus category with a plus-10 in 39 games.

Kemp leads Manchester's blueliners with 20 points (3-17=20) and is ranked fifth on the Monarchs squad in scoring.

Kemp is tied for 14th place among AHL defensemen with 20 points.

Rookie Kemp is also tied for the Monarchs team lead in assists with Harrold (2-17=19), they both have 17.

Harrold is second on Manchester's squad among defensemen and is tied for sixth overall with defenseman Eric Werner (3-16=19) with19 points each.

Defensemen Doug Nolan is the lone Monarchs player without a goal this season.

LaBarbera is second in the league among minutes played with 2,055 minutes in 35 games.

LaBarbera is ranked first in the AHL in the saves category with 1,053 on the season.

LaBarbera is ranked second in the league with a save-percentage of .930 and he is tied for fifth among goaltenders with a goals-against-average of 2.31.

LaBarbera has played in 220 AHL games with the Monarchs and Wolf Pack. He has a record of 111-69-20, a goals-against-average of 2.17 and a save-percentage of .926 in 12,236 minutes of work between the pipes and 5,547 saves in the AHL.

LaBarbera collected his fourth shutout of the season on Sunday, December 31 versus the Falcons stopping all 26 shots he faced. His 25 AHL career shutouts with the Monarchs and Wolf Pack lead all active goaltenders and ranks seventh all time in the AHL.

Goaltender Yutaka Fukufuji, on recall with the Los Angeles Kings since January 12, made his first start in net at the Verizon Wireless Arena for the Monarchs on Saturday, January 6 and came out with his first home win of the season with a 2-1 victory over the Providence Bruins. The 6-foot-1, 186-pound native of Kushiro, Japan, has appeared in two other games with the Monarchs this season when he replaced LaBarbera for the third period in the 6-4 loss to the Sharks in Worcester on Friday, December 22 and he had his first start of the season in with a 5-2 win over the Wolf Pack at the Hartford Civic Center on December 30.

Fukufuji made his NHL debut on Saturday, January 13 versus the St. Louis Blues by playing the third period. He made four saves on five shots in 19:17 minutes of work in the Kings 6-5 loss. Fukufuji became the first Japanese born player to play in the NHL.

Right wing Konstantin Pushkarev, on recall with the Kings since January 4, scored his first NHL goal on January 8 versus the Edmonton Oilers. Pushkarev has three points (1-2=3) in four games with the Kings this season.

Goaltender Barry Brust, on recall with the Kings since November 29, has played in eighth NHL games this season collecting a record of 2-2-1, a 3.56 goals-against-average and a .884 save-percentage with the Kings.

TRANSACTIONS

1-12-06 - The Los Angeles Kings (NHL) recalled goaltender Yutaka Fukufuji from the Manchester Monarchs (AHL).

1-12-06 - The Manchester Monarchs (AHL) recalled goaltender Ryan Munce from the Reading Royals (ECHL).

INJURIES

1-14-06 - Defenseman Peter Harrold is day-to-day with an upper body injury.

1-11-06 - Left wing Jeff Giuliano is day-to-day with an upper body injury.

12-31-06 - Defenseman Brendan Buckley is day-to-day with an upper body injury.

12-30-06 - Right wing Ryan Murphy is day-to-day with an upper body injury.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 15, 2007


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