January 29, 2008

Monarchs Pick Up Pair of Wins
Eye Division Title

The New Hampshire Junior Monarchs picked up a crucial four points over the weekend defeating the Springfield Falcons and the New England Huskies while moving to within three points of the division leading Syracuse Stars with one game in hand.

Monarchs 4 Falcons 1

Jeffery Velleca (Merrimac College ‘08) opened the scoring just 47 seconds into the game notching his eleventh goal of the season with a high snap shot over the glove of Falcon net minder Josh Watson, coming off a pair of nice passes from Ryan Miniaci and Monarch Captain Owen Carpino. Less than five minutes later, Harvard bound Rence Coassin expanded the Monarch lead when he fired home a beautiful goal mouth pass from Graham Sisson (Bowdoin College ‘08) and Juri Bouharevich (Quinnipiac ‘08). New Hampshire continued to press the Falcon’s defensemen for much of the period, but Springfield forward Evan Chlanda got his team back to within one when he capitalized on a neutral zone turnover by the Monarch’s defense, scoring on an outstretched (Justin Gates Providence College ‘08) with just under four minutes to play in the opening stanza. New Hampshire took the one goal lead into the dressing room at the end of one period of play.

The second period saw sloppy play by both teams, neither team able to generate much offense despite power play opportunities, until Monarch defenseman Ryan Miniaci converted a nice cross slot pass from Greg Burke (University of New Hampshire ‘09) while on the power play to restore a two goal advantage. Monarch goalie Justin Gates saw fifteen Falcon shots during the period and turned aside all of them.

The third period was played at a much better tempo as New Hampshire looked to add to their lead. Falcon goaltender Watson played solid throughout the period, as did Gates, neither team able to find the back of the net. Both teams were penalized heavily during the period- The Monarchs had five infractions for ten minutes and the Falcons had four for eight minutes. Greg Burke sealed the deal with thirty-one seconds remaining in the game with an empty net tally. Newcomer, Jimmy Powers, and Justin Gates would pick up the assists as the Monarch roll continued.

Monarchs 7 Huskies 2

With this Monarch victory, New Hampshire improved to 16-2-1 in its last nineteen games which has put them in contention for another Division Title. Major factors in this turnaround include incredible goaltending and the resurrection of the power play and penalty kill units. On this afternoon, it was Brian Flynn who got the Monarchs on the board first with a nicely executed tic-tac-toe play from Greg Burke and Jeffery Velleca in front of Huskies’ net minder Harry Bartlett. The New Hampshire lead was short-lived, however, as Mike Richard evened the score just ten seconds later. The rest of the period was all Monarchs with Lance Herrington scoring at the 16:36 mark from Burke and Flynn. Twenty three short seconds later Burke scored to give the home squad a comfortable lead after one period, Velleca and Flynn picking up assist on the goal.

“The line of Velleca, Burke and Flynn has picked their game up a notch or two over the last month and a half. They are a force, and are giving opposing teams all they can handle in the offensive zone,” stated Associate Head Coach Bob Corkum.

The second period began with the Velleca, Burke, Flynn show; the trio scored just fifty nine seconds into the second period. Flynn picked up his second goal of the afternoon and seventeenth on the year. Jimmy Gaudet (Dartmouth College ‘08) got in on the fun scoring a power play goal to give New Hampshire a commanding 5-1 lead just under minutes into the second. With one minute to go in the period Ryan Miniaci got on the scored his third goal in as many games.

“Ryan has been playing extremely well, and it is nice to see him being rewarded with a few goals,” remarked Corkum. Connor Moore (Providence College ‘09) and Kyle Mountain assisted on the Miniaci goal, the result of a nice forechecking effort.

The third period began with the Huskies trying to get to Monarch back stop James Mello (Dartmouth College ‘08) who turned aside twenty of the twenty-one shots he faced in the two preceding periods. Instead, it was Miniaci scoring again at the 8:21 mark; this time on the power play. Brian Flynn picked up his third assist on the afternoon, along with Owen Carpino. Huskies forward Sabastion Kimmel finally got one passed Mello, charging toward the net for a rebound and knocking Mello back into the net. The official immediately signaled no goal but changed his mind when he saw the puck behind a sprawled Mello. It was too little too late, and the Monarchs went on to pick up their twenty-third win of the season. The Monarchs play host to the Valley Junior Warriors today at 2:00pm in Hooksett, N.H. at the Tri-Town Ice Arena, and yes, tickets are still available!