Grizzlies shut out by Monarchs

MANCHESTER, N.H. — The Grizzlies should have known it was going to be a long night when they looked across the ice and saw shutout king Adam Hauser standing in between the pipes for Manchester.

The Monarchs used two goals in each period and a 26-save performance by Hauser to blank the Grizzlies, 6-0, Tuesday night.

For Hauser, it was his second straight shutout against Utah and his league-leading fifth of the season in just 11 games played.

Utah fell behind 2-0 for the second straight game as the Monarchs took advantage of two defensive breakdowns by the Grizzlies. The first came at the 7:49 mark of the period when Dustin Brown intercepted an errant clearing attempt and walked in, pushing the puck by Grizzlies netminder David LeNeveu for his 15th goal of the season.

Another turnover, this time in the offensive zone, led to the Monarchs' second goal. George Parros prevented the Grizzlies from keeping the puck in the offensive zone and then went in the opposite direction, where he snapped a shot from the left wing circle for his second goal of the season at the 11:20 mark of the period. Manchester outshot Utah 12-6 in the period.

The Monarchs added to their lead in the second period with goals by Tim Gleason, his fourth of the season, and Brad Smyth, his seventh. Smyth's goal came on a power play, pushing the league's best power player (21.8%) to 1 for 3 in the game.

Late in the period, play got physical with Joe Rullier getting whistled for instigating, fighting and a misconduct for his actions against Jeff Taffe. Utah couldn't get anything going on the major power play in the three minutes with the man advantage during the second period but had two minutes carry over to the third frame. Each team mustered 11 shots on goal in the second period.

Manchester stuck to form by scoring two more goals in the third period, one on the power play and one shorthanded. The man advantage goal came from Tom Kostopoulos who stood on the back door as Yanick Lehoux found him for his 16th goal of the season. Noah Clarke would add a shorthanded goal, his 10th goal of the season, with just over a minute remaining.

LeNeveu made 27 saves dropping to 5-13-1 on the season.

The Grizzlies meet the Hartford Wolf Pack on New Year's Eve in the first of back-to-back meetings between the two clubs. Face-off is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. MST.