SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks Win Game, Lose Stalock To Injury

The Worcester Sharks defeated the Manchester Monarchs 4-3 in a shootout Friday night at the DCU center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 3,581 fans, but the two points may have come at a heavy cost as goaltender Alex Stalock left the game with an apparent left leg injury late in the third period. Word after the game was Stalock had been stepped on in a scrum in front of the Worcester net, but there were no other details available.

The WorSharks would grab the first goal of the game with a power play tally, but not before giving fans a scare. After Justin Braun fumbled the puck along the offensive blue line the Monarchs penalty killers cleared the puck out of the zone as the race down ice for the puck began. Stalock, seeing that Manchester was going to win the race, took off from the opposite direction and just beat the Monarchs to the puck. Unfortunately for Worcester Stalock partially fanned on the clearing attempt and Manchester recovered, firing a shot on the open net. Braun, who had raced past Stalock to guard the empty net, was able to make the save. A few moments later Braun one-timed a Jonathan Cheechoo pass from the left halfboards on net, where Andrew Desjardins tipped it past Manchester netminder Martin Jones at 8:08 of the first period. It was Desjardins first power play goal in 199 games for Worcester.

The Monarchs would get themselves even with a power play goal of their own as time was winding down on the opening period. With Brandon Mashinter in the box for hooking the defenseman Andrew Campbell picked off a clearing attempt and made a pass along the blue line to Viatcheslav Voynov, who blasted a one-timer on net that beat a partially screened Stalock high to the glove side with just one tick left on the power play and 44.3 seconds left in the period.

Tommy Wingles would get Worcester the lead back after an odd shift that saw Steven Zalewski have three consecutive shots blocked by different Manchester players. The third one bounced well for Worcester, or perhaps more correct didn’t bounce at all, as Mashinter was able to grab the loose puck and find Wingles all alone at the far post. Jones had no idea where the puck was, and barely reacted until Wingles was blasting the puck into the open net behind him at 2:50 of the middle period.

Manchester would again grab a power play tally to get back to even when Dwight King threw a backhander on net that beat Stalock to the shot side after a wild scrum in front of the net drew the netminder off his post at 12:45. Desjardins looked to grab the lead back just seconds later when after a rush up ice the puck ended up on his stick with nothing but open net in front of him, but the Manchester defense was just able to keep Desjardins from getting shot off as the puck bounced away harmlessly.

The third period has been an issue for Worcester all season, and the trend looked to rear up again when Justin Azevedo fired a shot that Stalock never saw but luckily hit him. Unfortunately for Worcester Stalock never saw the rebound either until it was too late as John Zeiler banged the puck home for Manchester first lead of the game at 7:58.

After a huge hit by Nick Schaus on David Meckler broke up a Manchester scoring chance Worcester would get the equalizer when Zalewski took a Mashinter feed from behind the goal line and blasted it over the shoulder of Jones at 12:08. Wingles would grab the second assist. Both teams would have great chances to take the lead over the remainder of the game, but unfortunately for Worcester one of those scoring chances resulted in Stalock getting his left leg stepped on. Carter Hutton replaces Stalock with 3:21 remaining in the game and Worcester clamped down on defense not allowing a shot the rest of regulation.

Hutton would have to make three saves in the overtime period, with a glove save on Marc Andre Cliché being of the highlight variety. Neither team would score in the extra stanza, and Worcester would find itself down 1-0 in the shootout after Brandon Kozun beat Hutton with a nice backhander high under the crossbar. But Hutton would stand tall on the next four attempts and behind two nice tallies by Zalewski and Cheechoo would grab the extra point.

Now the only question is “what was the cost?”.

GAME NOTES
With the injury Stalock will join Tony Lucia, T.J. Trevelyan, James Marcou, and Mike Moore on the injured list. Joe Loprieno was a healthy scratch. The WorSharks suffered an additional injury in the contest, with head coach Roy Sommer taking a puck to the face/nose while standing behind the Worcester bench with eight minutes remaining in the first period. Sommer went down like a ton of bricks and was on the floor for some time before being led off holding a towel to his nose. Sommer returned to the bench with 5:30 remaining in the period looking like he was on the wrong end of a championship prize fight. When the team returned to the ice for the second period Sommer just had his nose taped.

There were two fights in the contest, with Frazer McLaren (6’5″ 240#) taking on Justin Johnson (6’1″ 220#) in a bout that had more missed haymakers than landed punches. Andrew Desjardins (6’1″ 200#) and Viatcheslav Voynov (5’11” 193#) got together in a rare overtime battle, with Desjardins landing several clean shots over the linesmen trying to break up the fight.

Sean Sullivan’s hipcheck of Jason Pitton may have made ESPN, but Nick Schaus throwing big hits is almost becoming a common occurrence. He is quickly getting the reputation as a guy you may not want to try and skate past along the boards. One other observation, Manchester goaltender Martin Jones is the biggest goaltender this writer can recall seeing. At 6’4″ and a very wide 191 pounds Jones takes up almost the whole net. It’s no wonder he has a .930 save percentage as there’s almost no net to shoot at.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 15 Steve Zalewski (g,a)
2. WOR – 17 Tommy Wingels (g,a)
3. MCH – 76 Viatcheslav Voynov (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Brandon Mashinter.

Even Strength Lines
McGinn/Desjardins/Cheechoo
Mashinter/Zalewski/Wingles
DaSilva/Henderson/McCarthy
McLaren/Quirk/MacIntyre

Braun/Petrecki
Schaus/Irwin
Leach/Sullivan

Power Play lines
Cheechoo/Desjardins/McGinn
Mashinter/Wingles/MacIntyre

Irwin/Schaus(Braun)
Braun/Sullivan

Penalty Kill Lines
Desjardins/McGinn
McCarthy/DaSilva
Quirk/McLaren

Leach/Braun
Schaus/Sullivan

BOXSCORE
Manchester 1 1 1 0 – 3
Worcester 1 1 1 0 – 4

1st Period-1, Worcester, Desjardins 8 (Braun, Cheechoo), 8:08 (PP). 2, Manchester, Voynov 12 (Campbell), 19:15 (PP). Penalties-Holloway Mch (high-sticking), 7:11; Johnson Mch (fighting), 8:50; McLaren Wor (fighting), 8:50; Mashinter Wor (hooking), 17:17.

2nd Period-3, Worcester, Wingels 9 (Mashinter, Zalewski), 2:50. 4, Manchester, King 13 (Azevedo, Kolomatis), 12:45 (PP). Penalties-Irwin Wor (hooking), 11:43; Teubert Mch (roughing), 17:28; Petrecki Wor (roughing), 17:28.

3rd Period-5, Manchester, Zeiler 3 (Nolan, Mullen), 7:58. 6, Worcester, Zalewski 4 (Mashinter, Wingels), 12:08. Penalties-Nolan Mch (interference), 0:53; Petrecki Wor (hooking), 5:02.

OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Voynov Mch (fighting), 3:07; Desjardins Wor (fighting), 3:07.

Shootout – Manchester 1 (Kozun G, Moller NG, Holloway NG, Mullen NG, Azevedo NG), Worcester 2 (McGinn NG, Zalewski G, Cheechoo G, MacIntyre NG, DaSilva NG).
Shots on Goal-Manchester 12-9-10-3-0-34. Worcester 9-11-12-4-1-37.
Power Play Opportunities-Manchester 2/3; Worcester 1/2.
Goalies-Manchester, Jones 17-5-1 (36 shots-33 saves). Worcester, Stalock 19-17-4 (31 shots-28 saves); Hutton 4-3-2 (3 shots-3 saves).
A-3,581
Referee-Francis Charron (46). Linesmen-Bob Paquette (18), Joe Ross (92).