SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks Choke Away Another Game, Lose to Manchester 3-2 In OT

The Worcester Sharks raced out to another first period two goal lead, but again the WorSharks were unable to finish off a game and were forced into overtime where they were defeated by the Manchester Monarchs 3-2 Friday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 3,993 fans.

Both squads would get a special teams chance early in the contest, with the WorSharks penalty kill looking great and their power play looking slightly worse than terrible. Worcester’s poor play with the extra skater didn’t extend to even strength in the opening period as the WorSharks would grab the first two goals of the game.

The first came at 10:42 of the stanza when T.J. Trevelyan flipped a loose puck from along the right wing boards out of the Worcester zone to in front of the WorSharks bench. The puck was grabbed by Benn Ferriero, who had to not only fight off the Manchester defense but also piles of snow that had gathered at the bench doors as the forward raced down the right wing side. With the Monarchs defense ready to cut him off Ferriero unleashed a laser of a wrist shot to the far post that beat Manchester goaltender Jeff Zatkoff to the blocker side. Brandon Mashinter had the second assist on the goal.

The WorSharks would make it 2-0 with one minute left in the period when the Crazed Rats executed a textbook odd man rush. With Worcester breaking into the Monarchs zone three on two Dan DaSilva threw a pass from the right wing side to Keven Henderson. With Andrew Desjardins breaking down the left side he and Henderson were able to isolate Manchester defenseman Davis Kolomatis to turn the original three on two to a two on one. All that was left was for Henderson to freeze Zatkoff and then throw an easy pass to Desjardins, who lit the lamp at 19:00.

Tempers would flare at 13:32 of the second period when defenseman Sean Sullivan took Manchester center Corey Elkins hard into the net with the Monarchs on the power play. As the teams scrummed just outside the crease of WorSharks netminder Tyson Sexsmith rookie Matt Irwin and Jordan Nolan would square off behind the goal line in a battle that didn’t amount to much. The main event took place in the slot where Desjardins and Kolomatis went at it. As the two began to throw punches Elkins came in from behind and prevented Desjardins from hitting Kolomatis. That was only temporary though, much to the chagrin of Kolomatis, who once Desjardins broke free of Elkins was pummeled by a series of left hands that drove him to the ice. Desjardins continued to throw bombs as Kolomatis attempted to cover up, and the beating was so one sided that referee Chris Cozzan was forced to jump to stop the pounding. The two bouts resulted in fighting majors for the combatants, and a third man in game misconduct for Elkins.

Manchester would get on the board at 17:21 of the middle period when couple of bad breaks went against Worcester while on the penalty kill. After the Monarchs broke into the Worcester zone and crashed the net the scrum of players bowled over Sexsmith. Unfortunately for Worcester the contact that took the netminder out of the play was caused by Mike Moore so play was allowed to continue, and before Sexsmith could regain his positioning Brandon Kozun was able to just deflect the puck over the goal line when the forward found the puck on his stick after some less than stellar passing by Manchester almsot cost them a scoring opportunity.

The third period has been a huge issue for Worcester this season, and it was again Friday night as the WorSharks all but disappeared for huge stretches of the stanza. One player that tried to keep his team fired up was Tommy Wingels, who threw a huge open ice hit on Bud Holloway just after the midpoint of the period. Holloway took exception to the hit and went after Wingels and landed a couple of good shots early, but Wingels roared back in the bout to land several serious shots to win the bout. The WorSharks lobbied for an instigator minor against Holloway, but one was not forthcoming.

The Monarchs would eventually get the equalizer when Worcester was unable to clear the puck out of their zone and Viatcheslav Voynov was able to blast a booming slapshot from the left point past Sexsmith at 12:09.

Worcester would have several decent chances to get the extra point in the overtime stanza, but missed the net on huge bombing shots on at least four different occasions. That last one proved deadly as Oscar Moller grabbed one of those wide blasts and broke in on an odd man rush, freezing Sexsmith and beating the netminder over the left shoulder at 3:24 to send the WorSharks looking for someone to perform the Heimlich Maneuver to stop their choking.

GAME NOTES
The Worcester Shuttle made a stop in the Bay State this week, dropping off Brandon Mashinter. The WorSharks also have another addition to the injury list as Jamie McGinn is out with an undisclosed injury. Joe Loprieno was the only healthy scratch for Worcester.

The three stars of the game were
1. MCH – 10 Oscar Moller (gwg)
2. WOR – 22 Andrew Desjardins (g)
3. MCH – 76 Viatcheslav Voynov (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Benn Ferriero.

Even strength lines
Mashinter/Ferriero/Trevelyan
Wingels/Quirk/Swift
Henderson/Desjardins/DaSilva
McLaren/Davis/MacIntyre

Moore/Sullivan
Irwin/Schaus
Petrecki/Pederson

Penalty Kill Lines
Ferriero/Davis(Wingels)
Desjardins/Quirk
Swift/Wingels

Moore(Petrecki)/Schaus
Petrecki(Irwin)/Sullivan

Power play lines
Trevelyan/Ferriero/Mashinter
Wingels/Desjardins/Swift

Moore/Sullivan
Irwin/Pederson

BOXSCORE
Manchester 0 1 1 1 – 3
Worcester 2 0 0 0 – 2

1st Period-1, Worcester, Ferriero 13 (Trevelyan, Mashinter), 10:42. 2, Worcester, Desjardins 12 (Henderson, DaSilva), 19:00. Penalties-Pederson Wor (hooking), 3:51; Nolan Mch (slashing), 6:11; Moller Mch (tripping), 19:21.

2nd Period-3, Manchester, Kozun 20 (Azevedo, Holloway), 17:21 (PP). Penalties-Azevedo Mch (hooking), 1:17; Hickey Mch (slashing), 6:21; Moore Wor (interference), 12:45; Elkins Mch (game misconduct – third man in), 13:32; Kolomatis Mch (fighting), 13:32; Nolan Mch (fighting), 13:32; Desjardins Wor (fighting), 13:32; Irwin Wor (fighting), 13:32; Quirk Wor (tripping), 16:22; Holloway Mch (roughing), 19:50; Schaus Wor (holding), 19:50.

3rd Period-4, Manchester, Voynov 13 (Zeiler), 12:09. Penalties-Holloway Mch (fighting), 11:04; Wingels Wor (fighting), 11:04; Moore Wor (delay of game), 13:40.

OT Period-5, Manchester, Moller 17   3:24. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Manchester 9-12-8-3-32. Worcester 11-9-10-1-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Manchester 1/4; Worcester 0/4.
Goalies-Manchester, Zatkoff 15-12-4 (31 shots-29 saves). Worcester, Sexsmith 1-2-1 (32 shots-29 saves).
A-3,993
Referees-Chris Cozzan (18), Joe Sullivan (38). Linesmen-Brian MacDonald (72), Joe Ross (92).

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