Monarchs, Huet gain shutout win
By KEVIN PROVENCHER
Staff Sports Writer

It’ll go down as just another victory of many this season over cellar-dwelling Lowell, but this time it took a monster slayer.

Rookie 27-year-old goaltender Cristobal Huet made 25 saves backing the Manchester Monarchs’ 3-0 victory over the Lock Monsters last night in Verizon Wireless Arena. The shutout was the Monarchs’ first of the season.

“We didn’t give them very much,” said Huet, who is 6-0 with a 1.16 goals against average when facing the luckless Lock Monsters. “It’s good to have one (shutout) . . . I was thinking about it a little bit at the end and I shouldn’t have been.”

Manchester (26-9-4-3, 59 pts.) is unbeaten in five straight at home. The Monarchs are at Portland, Maine, Friday at 7:05 p.m., and Saturday they play at Springfield, Mass., at 7:35 p.m.

If there was ever a chance for the Lock Monsters to kick the Monarchs when they were down it was last night.

Lowell (12-31-3-1, 28 pts.) came to the Queen City having won two straight for the first time this season. The Monarchs were missing four of their top-six scorers, three on call-ups to the Los Angeles Kings and second-leading scorer Steve Kelly to illness. The Monarchs were playing their fourth game in five days.

“Who would have thought,” said Monarchs coach Bruce Boudreau. “It was our dedication to defense, especially when your lineup’s depleted.”

Huet, and a rugged defensive corps that was missing third-leading scorer, all-star Tomas Zizka, would not allow it.

Huet made it clear that he was intent on personally beating the Lock Monsters for the sixth straight time when he made a stick save on Lowell sniper Mike Zigomanis right at the crease less than seven minutes into the game. That turned out to be the best scoring chance by either side in the early defensive struggle.

“Their goaltender made some huge saves,” said Lowell assistant coach and general manager Tom Rowe, who was filling in for coach Ron Smith. “I think he’s had everybody’s number, not just ours. I think he and (Travis) Scott are one of the best 1-2 punches in the league.”

“He made big stops in every period,” said Monarchs defenseman Richard Seeley of Huet.

And Monarchs leading scorer Pavel Rosa added, “He (Huet) kept us in the game. We knew it was going to be a low-scoring game because they were a better team with more skilled guys.”

The game-winner came in the middle of the second period. Veteran Eric Healey patiently — as is his style — picked his spot from 15 feet beating Lowell goalie Patrick DesRochers. Newcomer Dan Welch had fed Healey from the right wing.

Huet, meanwhile continued his brilliance by snuffing defenseman Nikos Tselio’s wrister during a Lock Monster power play before that goal and forward Harold Druken’s point-blank bid at the stickside of the crease with 3:06 left in the period.

And Druken is no slouch, having played 18 games with the Carolina Hurricanes before being shipped to the minors recently. He had already sliced and diced through the Monarchs defense to get that golden opportunity on Huet.

Denied.

Monarchs defenseman Mike Pudlick made it 2-0 on a power play slap shot that DesRochers never saw. That insurance tally came during 6:35 of consecutive power play minutes for the Monarchs.

“That killed us,” said Lowell’s Rowe. “I can’t fault any of the calls. You can’t come in here and expect to beat a team like Manchester taking silly penalties.”

Manchester’s Chris Schmidt adding a short-handed empty netter with 1:32 to go.