AHL Manchester Monarchs

Zat's On!

Published on January 29, 2011 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release


MANCHESTER, NH - The Manchester Monarchs picked up two points in the standings and maintained their first place position in the Atlantic Division with an exciting win against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 3-2, at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Saturday night.

Manchester (30-16-1-3, 64 points) picked up their 30th win of the season to set the pace in the Atlantic Division with 64 points and maintain their first place lead ahead of the Portland Pirates (29-14-4-1, 63 points). Bridgeport (19-23-3-3) received their 23rd loss of the season and sit in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with 44 points.

"It was a thriller," said Monarchs Head Coach Mark Morris. "It went down to the wire in the waning seconds. Once again, we had some timely goals. (Monarchs goaltender Jeff) Zatkoff was excellent - his great effort sealed the deal for us."

"I was pleased with how we had worked although we had a couple glitches; I was happy with the result," said Morris.

The Monarchs picked up the game-winning goal at 15:40 of the second period with center Oscar Moller's11th goal of the season. The play started in the neutral zone when Monarchs defenseman Andrew Campbell started the transition by passing the puck over to fellow defenseman David Kolomatis who then rifled a pass up the boards to Moller. The center streaked up the boards and blasted a shot on net that found its way past goaltender Joel Martin to give the Monarchs their third lead of the night.

At 4:39 of the first period, defenseman Viatcheslav Voynov scored his 11th goal of the season to give Manchester a 1-0 lead. Moller leaned in to take the draw to start the Monarchs first power play of the night. Moller tipped the puck to Monarchs center Marc-Andre Cliche who then slid the puck back to the point where Voynov let a slap shot go that found its way through the crowd in front of Martin.

At 1:25 of the second frame while on the power play, the Sound Tigers were finally able to find the back of the net. The goal came while Bridgeport was set up in the Monarchs zone and Bridgeport defenseman David Ullstrom passed the puck to right wing Rhett Rakhshani along the half wall. Rakhshani then slid the puck to the center point where defenseman Mark Katic let a one-timer go that beat Monarchs goaltender Jeff Zatkoff clean, top shelf.

It wasn't long however before the Monarchs were able to answer again taking the lead on an individual effort by right wing John Zeiler. The veteran winger followed Sound Tigers defenseman Mark Wotton as he carried the puck behind his own net as Zeiler forced a clean turnover. After grabbing the puck, Zeiler carried it behind the Bridgeport net and fed the puck on to the stick of the waiting left wing Richard Clune who snapped the puck past Martin for the Monarchs second goal of the night.

Bridgeport knotted the contest up again at 14:40 of the second period on a quick heads-up goal. As the Monarchs attempted to break out of their own zone, Wotton stole the puck and quickly dished it forward to right wing Jesse Joensuu who carried the puck in on goal in a two-on-one situation. Joensuu then appeared ready to shoot but instead passed the puck cleanly to center Rob Hisey who easily beat the diving Zatkoff for the Sound Tigers second goal of the game.

Zatkoff (12-11-3) picked up his 12th win of the season stopping 31-of-33 shots. Martin (1-3-0) stopped 19-of-22 shots on net as he collected his third loss of the season.

Manchester went 1-for-4 on the power play. Bridgeport was 1-for-3 with the man advantage.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 29, 2011


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