Adam Hauser made a season-high 43 saves and pitched his fourth shutout of the year for the Manchester Monarchs, who completed a weekend sweep of the Providence Bruins with a 2-0 win before 9,661 fans at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Saturday night.
Left wing Dustin Brown and center Michael Cammalleri each collected power-play goals for the Monarchs, who improved to 20-1-0-0 on the season and maintained an 11-point lead over the second-place Hartford Wolf Pack in the Atlantic Division.
The Wolf Pack visit the Verizon Wireless Arena on Sunday afternoon.
Hauser, now 7-0-0 on the season, piled up 13 saves in the first period, 15 saves in the second period and another 15 saves in the third period to seal the victory, the Monarchs’ 10th straight on home ice and 13th straight overall.
It was also Hauser’s 11th shutout in a Monarchs uniform, a new franchise record.
The Monarchs built a two-goal cushion through two periods of play thanks to Brown and Cammalleri. Brown jammed a loose puck in the crease past Bruins goaltender Cody Rudkowsky (27 saves) at the 17:02 mark of the opening period, and Cammalleri collected his league-leading 19th goal, and league-leading ninth power play goal, by one-timing a feed from center Yanick Lehoux into the top corner of the net just 52 seconds into the middle period.
Defenseman Denis Grebeshkov had the second assist on Cammalleri’s goal. Cammalleri, who leads the AHL with 36 points (19-17=36), and Noah Clarke shared assists on Brown’s 12th goal of the season.
Elsewhere on Saturday:
Alexandre Giroux recorded a hat trick and Jed Ortmeyer had four assists as Hartford shut out Worcester, 6-0… Dan Ellis snapped a personal 13-game losing streak and improved to 1-9-0 this year by making 28 saves in Hamilton’s 4-1 win over Cleveland… Kevin Colley and Justin Mapletoft scored as Bridgeport beat Lowell, 2-1… Pavel Vorobiev scored in the final minute of overtime as Norfolk ended Philadelphia’s 12-game home winning streak with a 2-1 win… Owen Fussey had two goals and an assist as Portland held off Hershey, 4-3… Scott Clemmensen made 28 saves to lead Albany to a 3-1 win over Springfield… Bryan Helmer scored with 4:11 to go in the game, giving Grand Rapids a 2-1 victory over Utah… Jeremy Reich scored twice and Andre Lakos and Mark Hartigan added three points each as Syracuse beat St. John’s, 6-2… Brian Finley finished with 36 saves for Milwaukee in a 3-2 win over Chicago… Jason Pominville scored two goals and Ryan Miller made 26 saves to help Rochester to a 4-3 shootout win in San Antonio… Ray Emery stopped 23 shots as Binghamton defeated Manitoba, 4-1… Kurtis Foster scored and Ilya Bryzgalov made 27 saves as Cincinnati beat Edmonton, 1-0.
