SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks stun Monarchs 5-1 for sixth win in a row

The Worcester Sharks found themselves Sunday afternoon where they have been far too often this season after one period, scoreless and trailing. But thanks to a four goal second period explosion the WorSharks were riding high and on their way to a second consecutive three-in-three weekend sweep by stunning the Manchester Monarchs, the number one team in the AHL’s Eastern Conference, 5-1 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 4,645 fans. The win was the sixth in a row for Worcester.

UMass alum Mike Pereira scored his first AHL goal, the game winner, Sunday during the Worcester
Sharks 5-1 win over Manchester. The WorSharks wore specialty jerseys to benefit the SHINE Initiative
to raise awareness about mental illness in children and young adults as a mainstream health issue.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights, and they’re well worth watching for a number of nice goals, we point to AHLLive.com

Scratches for Worcester were Sena Acolatse (leg), Eriah Hayes (neck), Matt Pelech (vet limit), Brodie Reid (foot), and Lane Scheidl (concussion). Troy Grosenick was the back-up goaltender.

For the first time this season the WorSharks have six wins and a row, which is one shy of the team record of seven set from March 16 to 31, 2007. It won’t be an easy task to get the streak to seven as after dispatching the best team in the East on Sunday Worcester takes on the number two team in the Springfield Falcons at a game at the DCU Center on Friday. The rest of next weekend’s schedule isn’t that much easier as on Saturday the WorSharks will face perennial Calder Cup contender Hershey Bears before heading down route 146 to take on the Providence Bruins Sunday afternoon. This could easily be called a “make or break” weekend for Worcester.

Worcester was shutout in the first period Sunday so their streak for scoring in consecutive periods stopped at 11, although looking at the streak it was a hodgepodge of information as it counted some overtime periods and not others. Yesterday this writer guessed it was, or had to be close to, a team record. Nope, it’s not. The team record is 15 periods in a row with a goal, and the streak didn’t contain a single overtime period so there’s no ambiguity. It was set from December 27th 2009 to January 8, 2010.

In one of those plays that doesn’t end up in the boxscore, during the second period in a faceoff at the Manchester blue line the Monarchs decided to try something different and had their three forwards and a defenseman lined up to make four players along the “line”. Kyle Bigos, who was spent most if the year in the ECHL, quickly nudged his defensive partner Konrad Abeltshauser toward the “open” Monarchs player to cover him directly off the faceoff. Worcester won the faceoff right to Bigos, and with Abeltshauser blocking the path of the fourth Manchester player the WorSharks we able to get full control and set up a good entry into the Monarchs zone.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 19 Daniil Tarasov (2g)
2. WOR – 13 Brock Higgs (g,a)
3. WOR – 35 Harri Sateri (26 saves)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Travis Oleksuk.

Even strength lines
McCarthy/Kearns/DaSilva
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Schwartz/Viedensky/Higgs
Bonneau/Rau/Pereira

Abeltshauser/Doherty
Davison/DeMelo
Comrie/Bigos

BOXSCORE

Manchester 1 0 0 – 1
Worcester 0 4 1 – 5

1st Period-1, Manchester, Crescenzi 2 (O’Connor, Livingston), 16:26. Penalties-Andreoff Mch (fighting), 1:55; Bonneau Wor (fighting), 1:55; Kearns Wor (cross-checking), 10:25; Bodnarchuk Mch (roughing), 13:47.

2nd Period-2, Worcester, Oleksuk 13 (DaSilva, Bigos), 3:17 (PP). 3, Worcester, Pereira 1 (Rau, Abeltshauser), 5:24. 4, Worcester, Tarasov 16 (Oleksuk, Hamilton), 7:10. 5, Worcester, Higgs 3 (Schwartz, Abeltshauser), 12:12. Penalties-Bishop Mch (tripping), 2:31; McCarthy Wor (slashing), 16:21.

3rd Period-6, Worcester, Tarasov 17 (Higgs, Oleksuk), 15:14 (PP). Penalties-DaSilva Wor (slashing), 10:18; Schultz Mch (slashing), 14:14; Sateri Wor (delay of game), 15:44; O’Neill Mch (high-sticking), 16:27.

Shots on Goal-Manchester 3-14-10-27. Worcester 7-9-5-21.
Power Play Opportunities-Manchester 0 / 4; Worcester 2 / 4.
Goalies-Manchester, Berube 23-15-2 (15 shots-11 saves); Niederberger 1-1-1 (6 shots-5 saves). Worcester, Sateri 16-20-1 (27 shots-26 saves).
A-4,645
Referees-Geno Binda (22), David Banfield (77).
Linesmen-Chris Low (88), Todd Whittemore (70).