SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks continue losing ways against Manchester in 4-1 loss to Monarchs

The Worcester Sharks are having a hard time doing a couple of things lately: scoring goals and beating the Manchester Monarchs. Knowing that it wasn’t great news to see a trip to New Hampshire on the schedule for this weekend and the results of Friday night’s contest at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester were never in doubt as the WorSharks lost 4-1 to their division rivals to go 0-4 on the season against the Monarchs. Since the beginning of last season Manchester is 12-1-3 vs Worcester.

Worcester Sharks forward Jeremy Langlois had the lone goal in the WorSharks 4-1 loss
to the Manchester Monarchs. Worcester is now 0-4 vs Manchester on the season.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights, such as they are, we’ll use the Monarchs YouTube channel.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Andrew Blazek, Taylor Doherty (hand) and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder). J.P. Anderson was the backup goaltender. Word from Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram says Doherty is practicing with the team and could return fairly soon. Worcester broadcaster Eric Lindquist didn’t seem that optimistic during the pregame show. Emanuelsson indicated to some fans earlier this month that he was returning home to Sweden for Christmas, and has already done so. Latest word on his injury is the same as the older news, that he’s not close to returning. The WorSharks might add another to the injury list as Eriah Hayes was injured in the first period after being checked into an open door at the Monarchs bench during the first period by Manchester winger Josh Gratton. Hayes had to be helped to the Worcester dressing room when he couldn’t put any weight on his left leg.

There were a couple of transactions over the past week, and another we’ll have to wait a few days to finalize. San Jose reassigned Rylan Schwartz to the Allen Americans, the ECHL affiliate of the organization. Worcester, in turn, signed Greger Hanson of the same Americans to a PTO. The WorSharks also signed another player to a try-out, forward Willie Coetzee. After the transaction was announced it was removed from the listings, so this writer was a tad confused as to what was going on. As usual it was Ballou that shed some light on the issue: Coetzee played in Austria this season prior to the ECHL, so he needs to clear AHL waivers. The rule is identical to the NHL version, but in a brain cramp moment I never applied it to Coetzee.

There was one fight in the contest when Worcester tough-guy Jimmy Bonneau went after Gratton for checking Hayes into the open door. It wasn’t much of a fight as Bonneau hit Gratton and Gratton hit the ice. Chalk up another TKO win for the Bone Saw.

With Worcester playing in Portland Saturday night the WorSharks decided to head north to Maine after the game instead of back to Worcester. The trip saves the team a couple of hours of travel time and a bit of stress from having to get to the DCU Center in downtown Worcester to make the trip on the Saturday before Christmas.

Was looking through old postings recently trying to locate some information and came across a post that essentially said “can’t score, can’t play defense, and the special teams are terrible” from last season. And one from 2012-13. And another from 2011-12. Seems the players change but the problems don’t. I wonder what (or who) might be the cause of that.

The three stars of the game were
1. MCH – 22 Brian O’Neill (4a)
2. MCH – 5 Vincent LoVerde (2g)
3. MCH – 12 Andy Andreoff (2g,a)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Jeremy Langlois.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Haley/Burish/Carpenter
Lerg/Trupp/Hayes
Bonneau/Hanson/Langlois

Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun
Taormina/Jones

BOXSCORE

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

1st Period-1, Manchester, LoVerde 3 (Shore, O’Neill), 5:44 (PP). 2, Manchester, Andreoff 4 (O’Neill, Shore), 13:05 (PP). 3, Manchester, LoVerde 4 (Andreoff, O’Neill), 18:25. Penalties-Tarasov Wor (slashing), 3:56; Bonneau Wor (fighting), 10:34; Gratton Mch (fighting), 10:34; served by Tarasov Wor (bench minor – too many men), 11:27.

2nd Period-4, Worcester, Langlois 5 (Hanson, Bonneau), 16:40. 5, Manchester, Andreoff 5 (O’Neill, Shore), 19:26. Penalties-Dowd Mch (goaltender interference), 6:51; Mersch Mch (hooking), 11:21.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Auger Mch (tripping), 0:20; Ebert Mch (hooking), 4:56; Young Wor (interference), 11:23.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 8-11-9-28. Manchester 8-8-5-21.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 4; Manchester 2 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Grosenick 7-5-0 (21 shots-17 saves). Manchester, Bartosak 5-2-0 (28 shots-27 saves).
A-3,564
Referees-Jon McIsaac (45).
Linesmen-Jeremy Lovett (78), Alex Stagnone (7).