MANCHESTER, NH – Nick Shore scored two goals and J.F. Berube pitched a shutout as the Monarchs ended 2014 with a 4-0 win against the St. John’s IceCaps Wednesday night at the Verizon Wireless Arena.

The Monarchs (22-7-1-1) end 2014 with the most points in the Eastern Conference, and pushed their record against St. John’s (12-14-5-1) to 2-0-0-0 on the season.

“Things just seem to be clicking right now,” Nick Shore said.  “Obviously I’ve been playing with (O’Neill) as of late which is a huge help right now. We got Backman on our wing too, so playing with those guys really makes it easy.”

Manchester opened the scoring at 14:24 of the second period when Shore put home his team-high 17th goal of the season on the power-play. Shore took a pass by Brian O’Neill from behind the net and jammed it home. 

David Van der Gulik added to the Monarchs’ lead just over two minutes later, when he scored his sixth goal of the year. 

Shore tallied his second of the night with a short-handed goal at 9:47 in the 3rd period. Shore stole the puck on his defensive blue line, and then finished a two-on-none breakaway, giving O’Neill his second helper of the night.

Michael Mersch pushed the lead to four when he netted his fifth of the season at 12:27 in the third. Mersch drove to the net, deked between his legs, and finally stuffed the puck into the net after a short scrum. 

Berube made 27 saves on the night, recording his second shutout of the season (also, Nov. 11 at POR).

Notes:

• The shutout by Berube was the 100th shutout in franchise history.
• Manchester improved to 16-0-0-0 this season when scoring four goals or more.
• Manchester is now 4-0-0-0 when scoring a shorthanded goal.
• The Monarchs are now 18-0-0-0 when leading after two periods this season.