Shell
10-12-2003, 02:39 PM
Lock Monster rally silences Monarchs
By DAVID PEVEAR, Sun Staff
MANCHESTER, N.H.
So far this is not like last season for the Lowell Lock Monsters, whose first six goals of this new season have been scored by players not sentenced to Lowell in 2002-03.
Lowell 4, Manch. 2
Last night Jason Morgan and Allan Rourke scored 16 seconds apart in the final minute of the second period, and Martin Sonnenberg and Robert Dome struck 23 seconds apart early in the third period as Lowell overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Manchester Monarchs 4-2 before a stunned 7,758 at the Verizon Wireless Arena.
The Lock Monsters won only 19 games last season while finishing last overall in the AHL. That was last season.
They have won their first two outings of 2003-04. They clearly have benefited from their new co-affiliation with the Calgary Flames, whose prospects have produced five of Lowell's six goals so far.
Sonnenberg, whose power-play goal at 5:32 of the third period proved the game-winner, played for the now-defunct Saint John Flames last season, as did Dome, the former Penguins first-round pick who in his Monsters debut last night scored on a backhander off a pass by Morgan at 5:55 of the third.
The game's No. 1 star was still Lowell goalie Patrick DesRochers (32 saves), a Carolina Hurricanes prospect who played 17 games for the Monsters last season after coming from the Springfield Falcons.
Last season Manchester won 10 of 12 meetings with Lowell and overall still leads 16-8-1 in this rivalry launched two years ago when the old LA-affiliated Monsters moved 30 miles north and became Monarchs.
Manchester is now 0-2-0 after losing its opener Friday night at home to the Worcester IceCats, 3-2, while Lowell was winning 2-1 over the Portland Pirates at Tsongas Arena.
Lowell wiped out a 2-0 deficit with goals 16 seconds apart by Morgan and Rourke in the final minute of the second period.
Manchester was humming along after goals by Steve Kelly at 5:42 of the second period and Dan Welch set up by Kelly short-handed at 8:51.
But one bad Monarchs pass in its end suddenly was turned into a goal by Morgan that resuscitated the Monsters at 19:08 of the second.
Sixteen seconds later, Brett Lysak from down low slid a pass to defenseman Rourke closing from the right point. Rourke, a Carolina prospect, snapped the puck upstairs past Milan Hnilicka (18 saves) from the right circle for his second goal in as many nights and the score was 2-2 as Manchester coach Bruce Boudreau seethed.
Morgan and Rourke both spent last season in the AHL, but not with the 19-51-7-3 Monsters. Morgan, 27, a 1995 fifth-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings, scored 17 and 13 goals the past two seasons with Saint John.
Rourke, 23, a 1998 sixth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, had 12 goals and 19 assists last season as a third-year St. John's Maple Leaf.
Only for one frenetic instant was DesRochers not rock-solid in the scoreless first period, when Manchester outshot the Lock Monsters 16-5. He wandered into the left corner after a Manchester clear-in, which he dumped to a Monarch suddenly circling behind Lowell's net. Hurrying back to his crease, he sprawled trying to leap over sliding Lowell defenseman Brennan Evans as all hell broke loose in Lowell's end.
But no harm, no goal.
DesRochers was a pillar of pads as he thwarted Manchester's Ryan Flinn and then Bryan Muir on the rebound following another turnover in Lowell's end with 7:25 left in the first period.
At one point early in the first period, the shots were even, 3-3, but Manchester thereafter outshot Lowell 13-2 into the first intermission.
Early in the second period, DesRochers was looking the wrong way behind the net as the Monarch's Noah Clarke slid a pass to Kelly uncovered in the bottom of the left circle. DesRochers never saw Kelly's shot that gave Manchester a 1-0 lead at 5:42 of the second period, four seconds after a Lowell penalty had expired. At 8:51 of the second, Welch scored a breakaway short-handed goal for a 2-0 Manchester lead.
By DAVID PEVEAR, Sun Staff
MANCHESTER, N.H.
So far this is not like last season for the Lowell Lock Monsters, whose first six goals of this new season have been scored by players not sentenced to Lowell in 2002-03.
Lowell 4, Manch. 2
Last night Jason Morgan and Allan Rourke scored 16 seconds apart in the final minute of the second period, and Martin Sonnenberg and Robert Dome struck 23 seconds apart early in the third period as Lowell overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Manchester Monarchs 4-2 before a stunned 7,758 at the Verizon Wireless Arena.
The Lock Monsters won only 19 games last season while finishing last overall in the AHL. That was last season.
They have won their first two outings of 2003-04. They clearly have benefited from their new co-affiliation with the Calgary Flames, whose prospects have produced five of Lowell's six goals so far.
Sonnenberg, whose power-play goal at 5:32 of the third period proved the game-winner, played for the now-defunct Saint John Flames last season, as did Dome, the former Penguins first-round pick who in his Monsters debut last night scored on a backhander off a pass by Morgan at 5:55 of the third.
The game's No. 1 star was still Lowell goalie Patrick DesRochers (32 saves), a Carolina Hurricanes prospect who played 17 games for the Monsters last season after coming from the Springfield Falcons.
Last season Manchester won 10 of 12 meetings with Lowell and overall still leads 16-8-1 in this rivalry launched two years ago when the old LA-affiliated Monsters moved 30 miles north and became Monarchs.
Manchester is now 0-2-0 after losing its opener Friday night at home to the Worcester IceCats, 3-2, while Lowell was winning 2-1 over the Portland Pirates at Tsongas Arena.
Lowell wiped out a 2-0 deficit with goals 16 seconds apart by Morgan and Rourke in the final minute of the second period.
Manchester was humming along after goals by Steve Kelly at 5:42 of the second period and Dan Welch set up by Kelly short-handed at 8:51.
But one bad Monarchs pass in its end suddenly was turned into a goal by Morgan that resuscitated the Monsters at 19:08 of the second.
Sixteen seconds later, Brett Lysak from down low slid a pass to defenseman Rourke closing from the right point. Rourke, a Carolina prospect, snapped the puck upstairs past Milan Hnilicka (18 saves) from the right circle for his second goal in as many nights and the score was 2-2 as Manchester coach Bruce Boudreau seethed.
Morgan and Rourke both spent last season in the AHL, but not with the 19-51-7-3 Monsters. Morgan, 27, a 1995 fifth-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings, scored 17 and 13 goals the past two seasons with Saint John.
Rourke, 23, a 1998 sixth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, had 12 goals and 19 assists last season as a third-year St. John's Maple Leaf.
Only for one frenetic instant was DesRochers not rock-solid in the scoreless first period, when Manchester outshot the Lock Monsters 16-5. He wandered into the left corner after a Manchester clear-in, which he dumped to a Monarch suddenly circling behind Lowell's net. Hurrying back to his crease, he sprawled trying to leap over sliding Lowell defenseman Brennan Evans as all hell broke loose in Lowell's end.
But no harm, no goal.
DesRochers was a pillar of pads as he thwarted Manchester's Ryan Flinn and then Bryan Muir on the rebound following another turnover in Lowell's end with 7:25 left in the first period.
At one point early in the first period, the shots were even, 3-3, but Manchester thereafter outshot Lowell 13-2 into the first intermission.
Early in the second period, DesRochers was looking the wrong way behind the net as the Monarch's Noah Clarke slid a pass to Kelly uncovered in the bottom of the left circle. DesRochers never saw Kelly's shot that gave Manchester a 1-0 lead at 5:42 of the second period, four seconds after a Lowell penalty had expired. At 8:51 of the second, Welch scored a breakaway short-handed goal for a 2-0 Manchester lead.