MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester Monarchs eight game home winning streak ended when the Worcester Sharks sunk their teeth into the home team by handing them a 2-1 loss in front of 8,885 fans at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Saturday night.

Manchester (36-16-6-1) is leading the Atlantic Division with 79 points.  Worcester (26-22-3-6) is tied for forth place in the Atlantic Division with 61 points.

The Sharks scored the first goal of the game at 3:57 of the first period.  Center Tom Cavanagh corralled the puck in the right face-off circle and fed a pass to right wing Graham Mink.  Collecting the puck in the slot, Mink sent a laser top shelf over goaltender Jason LaBarbera’s glove hand.  Defenseman Scott Ferguson also picked up an assist on the tally.

With a fresh sheet of ice, Worcester added to their one goal lead 50 seconds into the middle period.  Picking up a pass from left wing Lukas Kaspar, center Mike Iggulden put a shot on net.  The puck redirected off a Monarchs defenseman and snuck past LaBarbera for the goal.  Left wing Mathieu Darche earned his team leading 30th assist on Iggulden’s 20th goal of the season.

At 19:01 of the second period, the Monarchs got on the scored board by capitalizing on a Sharks penalty.  Skating from the left face-off circle toward the slot, right wing Lauri Tukonen dished the puck back to the right point where defenseman T.J. Kemp blasted a slap shot past Worcester goalie Thomas Greiss.  Left wing Matt Moulson also assisted on Kemp’s second power play goal of the season to make the score 2-1.

LaBarbera took the loss saving 30-of-33.  Greiss backstopped the win by stopping 32-of-33.

Manchester went 1-for-5 on the power play.  Worcester was 0-for-4 with the man advantage.

The Monarchs host the Norfolk Admirals on Tuesday, February 27 at the Verizon Wireless Arena with the opening face-off at 7:05 p.m.  Catch all of the play-by-play action of Monarchs hockey with Ken Cail on the Monarchs Radio Network WGIR-AM 610 and at www.monarchshockey.com.  Watch the game live on B2 Networks for just $6 per game.  Log onto www.monarchshockey.com and click on the link to B2 Networks ten minutes prior to each Monarchs game to watch the game live.