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WOLVES EHL PREMIER BEATS NH JR MONARCHS 5-4 IN SHOOT-OUT THRILLER

By S. Jacobs, 11/15/15, 4:15PM EST

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Goaltender Kurt Gutting made 43 saves and also stopped all 3 Jr Monarchs shoot-out attempts to win his 2nd straight game, leading the Wolves to a 5-4 victory over the NH Jr Monarchs Friday at the Waterville Valley ice Arena.

 

After a feeling out period with tight checking on both sides over the first half of the opening stanza the Jr Monarchs opened the scoring at 9:04 on the power play for a 1-0 lead.  Joe Flanagan would respond for the home team at 12:42 for a Wolves power play goal of their own when he tipped home a Just Munck point shot.  Trevor Mack also assisted on the tying goal.  The game opened up at this point with special teams at the forefront.  The Jr Monarchs took a 2-1 lead with 5:27 left in the period while skating short-handed, but the Wolves Ryan Tierney would answer just 23 seconds later.  Still on the power play the Wolves applied pressure that paid off when a Chris Peters point shot caromed off the back wall and Tierney alertly picked it up and stuffed it behind a surprised Kyle Madere in the Monarchs net.  Justin Munch picked up his 2nd assist on the goal by starting the play with a pass to Peters. The visitors would strike again however for their 3rd lead of the game on a Connor Powell goal with 3 minutes left and the 3-2 lead at the first intermission.

 

The Wolves once again responded to tie it at 3 when Alfredo “Sauce” Lugo scored a short- handed tally of his own from Andrew Lee and Trevor Mack when he raced raced over the blue line and put a deceptive wrist shot home at 6:29 of the 2nd.  The Jr Monarchs would not sit back though and took the lead once again at 9:45 on a Sean O’leary power play goal.  Wolves captain Ryan Dunn evened the score once again at 4-4 when he slid one under Madore after a nice “goal mouth” feed from Max Kent.  The second assist when to Kent’s defensive partner Daniel Hall.

 

The 3rd period was a fast paced hard hitting one where both goalies came up big, especially Gutting who stopped a clean break away and several other point blank shots.  The 5 minute 3 on 3 overtime period also proved exciting with neither team able to put one home, setting the stage for the “shoot out”.  

 

The Jr Monarchs were up first but Gutting flashed his right pad to stop a hard stick side attempt.  Madore would do the same on the Wolves Ryan Dunn by stopping a labeled back hand deke shot.  Gutting once again thwarted the Jr Monarchs shooter setting the stage for Zach Sullivan who was up next for the Wolves,  Sullivan ripped a hard wrist shot home to give the Wolves the lead before Gutting would seal the victory for the Wolves with his 3rd “shoot out” save of the round.