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AHL Manchester Monarchs

Ship Wrecked Monarchs fall to the Pirates, 7-5

March 29, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release


LEWISTON, ME - The Manchester Monarchs gave up four power play goals to the Portland Pirates as they dropped a 7-5 decision at the Androscoggins Bank Colisee on Saturday night. The Monarchs lead the Pirates, 6-3-0-0, in the VIP Cup Series.

Manchester (43-18-2-6) leads the Atlantic Division with 94 points. Portland (24-32-2-8) is ranked fifth in the Atlantic Division with 58 points.

"Tonight's game started extremely well, but a parade of penalties depleted our energy and momentum," said Monarchs Head Coach Mark Morris. "We had plenty of glorious chances, but we did not convert. Had we scored early on our early breakaways, this game should've been over in the first. Brian O'Neill continues to find the back of the net. He's really coming on for us, and our new goalie Patrik Bartosak played well in relief. He had some great stops and gave us a chance to win. A shorthanded goal by Andy Andreoff and O'Neill's late goal made it close, but we came up short. In a game like this, the penalties zapped our jump when we made a strong push to tie things up. We need a more complete effort next weekend. We'll learn from this setback and move forward."

The Pirates regained their three-goal lead with left wing Jordan Martinook's second tally of the game. Skating on the power play, center Andy Miele sent the puck from the left point to the low slot where Martinook chipped the pass past Monarchs goaltender Patrik Bartosak for his 14th goal of the season. Center Greg Carey assisted on the Pirates fourth power play goal of the night at 9:02 of the final frame to bring the score to 6-3.

Center Jordan Weal put the Monarchs on the scoreboard early with a power play goal at 3:59 of the opening frame. Defenseman Andrew Bodnarchuk fed the puck to center Linden Vey skating down the right wing and over the Pirates blueline. Vey fed a short pass over to Weal who was streaking through the Pirates zone along the right wing. Weal carried the puck into the right face-off circle before wristing a shot five-hole on netminder Chris Rawlings for his 18th goal of the season and the 1-0 advantage.

Right wing Brian O'Neill doubled the Monarchs lead with his team-leading 24th goal of the season at 5:38 of the first period. Weal carried the puck into the Pirates zone along the right wing and dropped a pass back to right wing Sean Backman who snapped a shot on net that Rawlings made the pad save on. O'Neill was charging the net and jammed the rebound into the cage as he fell to the ice.

Center Tim Kennedy cut the Monarchs lead in half with his second tally of the season at 12:41 of the opening stanza. Kennedy fired a shot from the right point of the Monarchs zone that bounced through traffic and narrowly snuck past Manchester netminder J.F. Berube. Miele and defenseman Randy Jones assisted on the Pirates goal on their first shot of the game.

Kennedy tied the game at 2-2 with a power play goal at 18:42 of the first period. Defenseman Joel Hanley carried the puck down the left wing of the Monarchs zone before passing it over to Kennedy in the slot. Kennedy grabbed the pass and wristed a shot into the top corner of the net for his second goal of the season. Left wing Lucas Lessio assisted on the tying goal.

Miele picked up his 26th goal of the season at 2:41 of the second period to give Portland a 3-2 advantage. Skating on the power play, right wing Tobias Rieder circled with the puck at the top of the right face-off circle before finding Miele in the left face-off circle. Miele stopped the past and blasted a slap shot past a partially screened Berube and into the top left corner of the net. Martinook collected an assist on the go-ahead goal.

The Pirates doubled their lead at the 14-minute mark of the middle frame. Left wing Darian Dziurzynski fired a shot wide and right wing Sebastian Stalberg picked up the puck behind the Monarchs cage. Stalberg carried the puck out to the left face-off circle before passing it over to Jones at the top of the right face-off circle. Jones fired a one-timer past Berube for his third goal of the season and a 4-2 lead.

The Pirates took a 5-2 lead with Martinook's 13th goal of the season. Miele sprung Martinook down the right wing and the forward took off. Martinook carried the puck into the Monarchs zone and fired a wrist shot from the right face-off circle for the goal. Defenseman Cade Fairchild earned an assist on the fifth Pirates goal of the game.

Bartosak replaced Berube between the pipes for the Monarchs following Martinook's goal.

The Monarchs found their way back onto the scoreboard with a shorthanded goal by left wing Andy Andreoff at 17:21 of the middle frame. Defenseman Derek Forbort carried the puck into the Pirates zone and spun around in the left face-off circle to pass the puck to Andreoff who was streaking into the zone and down the slot. Andreoff carried the puck to the right doorstep before backhanding a shot past Rawlings for the Monarchs third goal of the game.

Backman tallied his eighth goal of the season at 10:34 of the third period. Weal fired a shot from the inside edge of the left face-off circle that Rawlings made the save on. Backman was on the right doorstep to jam home the rebound. O'Neill assisted on the goal that brought the score to 6-4.

O'Neill scored his second goal of the game and 25th tally of the season at 18:20 of the third period. Backman fed the puck over to O'Neill as they skated into the Pirates zone. O'Neill skated in on Rawling and slipped the puck into the back of the net. The goal brought the Monarchs back to within one tally.

Right wing Brandon Yip finished off the Monarchs with his 11th goal of the season, an empty net tally, at 19:48 of the final period for the 7-5 final.

Bartosak (0-1-0) took his first loss of the season in relief duty, stopping seven-of-eight shots. Berube (26-15-2) stopped 8-of-13 shots he faced. Rawlings (1-2-0) earned his first win of the season with 23 saves on 28 shots.

Manchester was 1-for-4 on the power play. Portland went 4-for-8 with the man advantage.



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