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AHL Manchester Monarchs

Welcome Back Mr. Jones

January 10, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release


MANCHESTER, NH - Goaltender Martin Jones earned his 10th win of the season in his first game back as the Manchester Monarchs defeated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 4-1, at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday night.

Manchester (24-9-2-4) leads the Atlantic Division with 54 points. Bridgeport (13-19-1-4) is ranked fourth in the Northeast Division with 31 points.

"I thought we came in with a big focus," said Monarchs Head Coach Mark Morris. "I thought after the first period we should have had a bigger margin. I thought we out-played them quite a bit, but their goalie did a great job. He kept them in there and kept it close. We were fortunate to get a couple empty-netters, but you got to give them a lot of credit. They were down a lot of players and their goalie played really well."

Right wing Brandon Kozun registered his 10th tally of the season and the eventual game-winning goal at 7:36 of the second period. On the power play, Monarchs center Linden Vey faked a shot from the left face-off circle before sending the puck into the left corner for right wing Zach O'Brien. The forward took the puck in front of the net and wristed a shot toward Sound Tigers goaltender Kenny Reiter, who was able to make a pad save. Kozun was waiting for the rebound to the right of the net and fired one-timer past Reiter before he could stretch in front of the puck. The goal gave the Monarchs a 2-0 advantage.

Manchester scored the game's opening goal only 3:41 into the first period. Right wing Scott Sabourin took the puck into the zone along the right wall and flipped the puck down into the right corner behind the net. Sabourin was able to regain possession after crashing against the boards and brought the puck in front of Reiter. Sabourin backhanded a shot above Reiter's left shoulder and into the net for an unassisted goal and the 1-0 lead.

Bridgeport made things interesting late, getting on the scoreboard with a power play goal of their own with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Left wing Alan Quine won a face-off on the right side of the Monarchs zone. Right wing Joe Diamond rifled a one-timer, which found its way past Jones and into the back of the net. The goal came at 18:20 in the third period and made it a 2-1 game.

Manchester put the game back out of reach soon after, scoring two empty net goals with under a minute to play. Vey made an attempt to clear the puck from his own zone but wound up scoring his sixth tally of the season, bringing the Monarchs lead back to two at 19:24 in the third period.

Moments later, right wing Sean Backman scored his fourth tally of the season when he collected a loose puck at center ice and skated uncontested toward an empty net. Backman added the insurance goal with seven seconds remaining to bring the final score to 4-1.

Jones (10-2-2) earned his 10th win of the season making 31 saves on 32 shots. Reiter (7-6-2) took his sixth loss of the season, stopping 31-of-33 shots.

Manchester was 1-for-6 on the power play. Bridgeport went 1-for-5 with the man advantage.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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