Game #51: Monarchs vs P-Bruins - PINK IN THE RINK!

For most updated lineup information and in-game updates, scroll to the bottom of this post.

Tonight the Providence Bruins (24-18-1-6) face the Manchester Monarchs (30-13-2-5) for the ninth time out of 12 meetings this season. In the previous eight games, the Monarchs have pretty much dominated with a 6-2-0-0 record.

It has the potential to be a bloodbath: the Monarchs are stacked with Martin Jones and Tyler Toffoli back, on top of prolific scorers and awesome humans already there like Jordan Weal, Linden Vey, and Tanner Pearson. Meanwhile, the Providence Bruins are falling apart at the seams because almost every single player is injured, recalled, or just got traded (although Carter Camper - traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets/Springfield Falcons yesterday - was already injured anyway).

The injury report for Providence, which as already incldued Jared Knigh and Alexander Fallstrom, now includes two top defensemen in Zach Trotman (upper body) and Joe Morrow (horrific knee injury). Yet another top defenseman, David Warsofsky, is on recall with Boston. Newly acquired Blake Parlett will make his Providence debut tonight. Even more devastating is the injury to top scorer and leader Nick Johnson, who was injured in the first period of the game against the St. John's Ice Caps on Wednesday.

Martin Jones has a great track record against Providence this season (5-0-0) and Niklas Svedberg has bee questionable against them (except for one win in Manchester that he stole).

Game Notes

Special Teams

How the Monarchs power play is still such garbage is a mystery to us all.

Leading Scorers

The Monarchs leading scorers this season are Jordan Weal (43 points), Nick Deslauriers (30 points), Tanner Pearson (29 points), Linden Vey (27 points), and Nick Shore (24 points).

Nick Johnson was the leader for the P-Bruins in scoring (38 points). With his injury, Craig Cunningham takes over the team lead with 32 points (18 goals, 14 assists). Other top scorers for Providence are Alexander Khokhlachev (29 points), Justin Florek (27 points), and Seth Griffith (26 points).

Season Series Leaders

In the season series, Jordan Weal and Seth Griffith are tied for most points with seven each. (1 G, 7 A for Weal; 4 G, 3 A for Griffith).

For Manchester, Tanner Pearson has six points and Andrew Bodnarchuk and Scott Sabourin each have five points versus Providence this season.

For Providence, five players have five points against Manchester this season, but only two are playing tonight: Matt Fraser has five goals and Koko has two goals and three assists.

League Leaders

Jordan Weal is tied for seventh in AHL scoring with 43 points (10 goals, 33 assists in 50 games). Weal's 33 assists also rank him third in the AHL among assist leaders.

Providence's Alexander Khokhlachev is tied for 14th in the AHL for rookie scoring with 29 points in 39 games (11 goals, 18 assists). Anthony Camara's five game-winning goals are tied for first place among AHL rookies.

Nick Delsuariers is second in the AHL in shots on net (175). In meaningless stats that are one of the few actually measured by the AHL, the Monarchs have two of the top three plus/minus players. Defensemen Vincent LoVerde is a +32, which is first in the league, and Andrew Bodnarchuk is tied for second with +29. Nick Shore ranks among the top in rookie plus/minus with +15.

In penalty leaders, Manchester's Andy Andreoff is third on the AHL with 29 minor penalties. Bobby Robins ranks third in penalty minutes with 162 and second in major penalties with 18.

Goaltending

Niklas Svedberg gets the start in net for Providence. Svedberg has appeared in 31 games this season. He has a record of 16-11-3, two shutouts, a 0.908 save percentage, and a goals against average of 2.81.

Martin Jones has appeared in 15 games and has a record of 11-2-2. He has one shutout, a 0.933 save percentage, ad 2.08 GAA.

Jones' last AHL game was against Providence on January 15th, where the Monarchs beat the P-Bruins in Providence by a score of 2-1. Jones made 32 saves to Svedberg's 19 saves that night.

This season against the P-Bruins, Jones is 5-0-0, has a 0.938 save % and 1.94 GAA.

Up against Manchester this season, Svedberg is 2-2-2, has a 0915 save %, and 2.68 GAA.

Lineups

Starting goaltenders, line combinations, and defensive pairings will be updated here as soon as they're made available closer to game time.

Providence

Lineup changes will include Blake Parlett's debut in the place of Zach Trotman. Andrew Cherniwchan, who was scratched on Wednesday, returns to the lineup to replace Nick Johnson.

Here are my guesses for the line combinations:

Craig Cunningham - Ryan Spooner - Matt Fraser

Justin Florek - Matt Lindblad - Seth Griffith

Anthony Camara - Alexander Khokhlachev - Bobby Robins

Tyler Randell - Andrew Cherniwchan - Rob Flick

I'm not sure about the defensive pairings, but the six defensemen will be: Mike Moore, Ben Youds, Tommy Cross, Chris Casto, Steve Spinell, Blake Parlett.

Niklas Svedberg will be in net against Martin Jones.

Manchester

I don't know yet, but I bet LA Kings Inside has this information already. Update: took my own advice and got the projecte Monarchs lines here.

Tanner Pearson - Linden Vey - Tyler Toffoli

Brian O’Neill - Jordan Weal - Sean Backman

Nick Deslauriers - Nick Shore - Zach O’Brien

Hunter Bishop - Andy Andreoff - Scott Sabourin

Derek Forbort - Andrew Campbell

Jeff Schultz - Colin Miller

Andrew Bodnarchuk - Vincent LoVerde

This will continue to be updated throughout the game.

In-Game Updates

I missed most of the Monarchs line rushes, but from what I can gather. Starters are in bold:

Pearson - Vey - Toffoli

Backman - Weal - O'Neill

Deslauriers - Shore - O'Brien

Andreoff - Gale - Sabourin

Bodnarchuk - LoVerde

Schultz - Miller

Forbort - Campbell

Jones

Niederberger

Scratches: Bishop, Crescenzi, O'Connor, Quailer

Providence:

Fraser - Spooner - Lidnblad

Camara - Koko - Robins

Griffith - Cunningham - Florek

Flick - Cherniwchan - Randell

Moore - Casto

Cross - Spinell

Parlett - Youds

Svedberg

Subban

Scratches: Morrow, Fallstrom, Knight, Johnson, Trotman, Morrison

First Period: Providence 1, Manchester 0

Shots

Manchester 9

Providence 8

Power Plays

Manchester 0/0

Providence 1/1

Scoring

15:55: Matt Fraser (17) PPG, Spooner, Youds

Faceoffs

Manchester: 10/17

- Weal: 4/6

- Shore: 4/6

- Vey 0/2

- Andreoff 2/3

Providence: 7/17

- Cunningham 2/5

- Koko 4/6

- Spooner 1/2

- Cherniwchan 0/3

- Lindblad 0/1

Faceoff locations:

- 9/17 Manchester defensive zone

- 3/17 Neutral zone

- 5/17 Providence defensive zone

Second Period: Providence 2, Manchester 1

Shots

Manchester 8 (17 total)

Providence 6 (14 total)

Power Plays

Manchester 0/1 (0/1 total)

Providence 0/3 (1/4 total)

Scoring

7:45: Desluariers (15), unassisted

14:25: Andrew Cherniwchan (4), Rob Flick

Faceoffs

Manchester: 5/13 (15/30 total)

- Weal: 1/1 (5/7 total)

- Shore: 2/5 (6/11 total)

- Vey 1/3 (1/5 total)

- Andreoff 1/4 (3/7 total)

Providence: 8/13 (15/30 total)

- Cunningham 0/1 (2/6 total)

- Koko 2/2 (6/8 total)

- Spooner 3/5 (4/7 total)

- Cherniwchan 1/1 (1/4 total)

- Lindblad 2/3 (2/4 total)

- Griffith 0/1 (0/1 total)

Faceoff locations:

- 6/13 (15/30 total) Manchester defensive zone

- 4/13 (7/130 total) Neutral zone

- 3/13 (8/30 total) Providence defensive zone