Sens vs. Monarchs 2/19/05 Articles: Monarchs drop third straight
February 20, 2005

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Kevin Provencher of NHsportsradio.com

Monarchs drop third straight

KEVIN PROVENCHER

Staff Sports Writer

NHsportsradio.com

MANCHESTER — Heard of “The Longest Yard?” The difference in the Binghamton Senators’ 7-2 victory over the Manchester Monarchs last night was five goals and 180 feet.

Deep in his own left wing circle, 180 feet away, defenseman Christoph Schubert airmailed a short-handed slap shot past goalie Adam Hauser’s glove for a 3-1 Senators’ lead near the end of the first period. The longest yards in Monarchs’ history. Sixty yards and the Senators never looked back.

With 11 players injured and out of their lineup, the Monarchs (35-12-3-3, 76 points) have dropped three in a row. It gets no easier as Manchester is at Lowell today at 4 p.m. Lowell has knocked off the Monarchs in six straight meetings.

The Binghamton Senators (30-19-4-4, 68 pts.) lead the East Division and have lost only once in regulation in their last five. League-leading scorer Jason Spezza amassed five points in the blowout.

Neil Komadoski, Brandon Bochenski, and Denis Hamel scored third period goals in a 4:02 span that had the sell out crowd of 9,916 in the Verizon Wireless Arena heading for the exits with 12 minutes to play. Spezza added his 24th tally of the season at 13:48 on a power play as the teams took to fisticuffs to make points.

Manchester’s Jeff Giuliano, with his trademark hard work, scored the only goal of the second period keeping the Monarchs’ comeback hopes alive. The period ended 3-2, but that was the Monarchs’ last gasp.

Credit the undermanned Monarchs for fighting back in the opening period. The bigger, more NHL-poised Senators were thinking one-and-done on the very vulnerable Atlantic Division-leading Monarchs. In the first 11:52 the Senators were up 2-0. All-star rookie Bochenski and the “Romanian Rocket” Arpad Mihaly fired home goals on Monarchs starter Mathieu Garon. Garon was pulled after Mihaly’s right wing keeper on a 2-on-1 just 8:02 into the game. But, Manchester refused to go easy. Dustin Brown scorched past two players on the left wall, cut toward the crease backing two others into Senators’ netminder Billy Thompson and finished at 15:47 making it 2-1.

Schubert’s stunner served as the game winner.