(manchestermonarchs.com) — The Manchester Monarchs were defeated by the Adirondack Phantoms, 4-1, behind former Monarchs center Brayden Schenn’s natural hat trick on their third annual Education Day game at Verizon Wireless Arena on Wednesday morning.
Manchester (7-4-0-1) leads the Atlantic Division with 15 points. Adirondack (6-6-0-0) is third in the Northeast Division with 12 points.
“Our first two periods were high energy,” said Monarch head coach Mark Morris. “We competed hard. There are a lot of veteran guys playing for Adirondack right now. I think their experience was pretty evident in the third period. They came out hard. They were physical and we just had way too many turnovers to have any success. It’s disappointing how we ended the game (this way).”
In the third period, Adirondack broke a 1-1 tie with a goal 22 seconds into the final frame. Center Ben Holmstrom played the puck to Schenn in the high slot. Schenn launched a slap shot that fluttered past Monarchs goaltender Martin Jones high on the glove side for his second goal of the day. Left wing Eric Wellwood also assisted on Schenn’s eventual game-winning goal and sixth tally of the season.
The Monarchs opened the scoring on the power play at 11:07 of the first period with a goal by right wing Brandon Kozun. Defensemen Andrew Bodnarchuk took a slap shot from left point that was stopped by Phantoms goaltender Cal Heeter’s left pad. Kozun was sitting in front of the net and poked in the rebound for the goal. Center Andrei Loktionov also recorded an assist on Kozun’s fifth goal of the year.
The Phantoms tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal by Schenn at 14:32 of the second period. Holmstrom won the face-off in the right wing circle of the Monarchs zone. Holmstrom’s draw went back toward the top of the circle where Schenn grabbed it and wristed a shot low on the glove side for the goal.
Schenn completed his second career AHL hat trick at 5:36 of the third period. Schenn intercepted a pass from a Monarchs defenseman and carried the puck in on a breakaway. He skated to the left hash mark before wristing a shot past Jones for his seventh goal of the season.
Center Garrett Roe capped off the scoring for Adirondack on the power play at 7:22 of the third period. From behind the net, right wing Matthew Ford sent an indirect pass to Roe who slipped the puck up and onto his backhand past Jones for the goal.
Jones (6-4-1) took his fourth loss of the season stopping 16 of 20 shots. Peter Mannino made saves on all five shots he faced in relief of Jones following Adirondack’s fourth goal. Heeter (4-3-0) earned his fourth victory of the season making 36 saves on 37 shots for the Phantoms.
Manchester went 0-for-2 on the power play. Adirondack was 2-for-4 with the man advantage.
