MANCHESTER, NH – Left wing Andy Andreoff, right wing Sean Backman, right wing Brian O’Neill, and defenseman Nick Deslauriers each scored goals and right wing Brandon Kozun picked up two assists as the Manchester Monarchs defeated the Providence Bruins, 4-1, at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Saturday night.

Manchester (8-1-1-2) leads the Atlantic Division with 19 points.  Providence (4-4-0-2) is ranked third in the Atlantic Division with 10 points.

"(Martin) Jones has been great; we’ve had timely scoring," said Monarchs Head Coach Mark Morris.  "Every game has been nip and tuck, and this one too, even though the score was 4-1, it was a lot closer than that.  We had some key penalty kills in the second period.  I thought we were really (relaxed) in the second and we opened the doors for them.  We had a lot of giveaways and turnovers but we challenged the guys between the second and third, and they responded well.”

The Monarchs gained a 2-0 advantage when Backman fired a shot at the net from the right face-off circle and then followed the puck to backhand in his own rebound above the glove of Subban at 2:32 of the second period.  Backman was assisted by O’Neill, who got a stick on the puck following Backman’s initial shot.  Defenseman Derek Forbort started the play by feeding Backman the puck as he skated down the right wing.

The Monarchs struck first as Andreoff picked up his second power play goal in as many games at the 9:14 mark of the first period.  Skating on the power play, the Monarchs set up in the Bruins zone.  Kozun passed the puck from the left face-off circle to Pearson, waiting at the top of the right face-off circle.  Pearson sent the puck to the left doorstep of the net where Andreoff fired a one-timer to the top left corner of the net beating goaltender Malcolm Subban for the 1-0 advantage.

The Bruins got back into the game at 18:43 of the second period as right wing Seth Griffith scored his fourth goal of the season on a Bruins power play to make the score 2-1.  As defenseman Colin Miller sat in the penalty box for tripping, the Bruins cycled the puck in the Monarchs zone.  Griffith found right wing Jared Knight near the bottom of the left face-off circle as he skated toward the net.  Knight returned the favor by leaving a centering pass behind for Griffith to sweep up before firing a shot that snuck underneath the pads of Monarchs goaltender Martin Jones to make it a one goal game.

Manchester took a 3-1 lead at 17:33 of the third period after O’Neill scored on a penalty shot for his second goal of the season.

The Monarchs added another goal on an empty net to take a 4-1 lead at the 19:06 mark of the third period.  Deslauriers sent a pass through the neutral zone to Kozun.  The right wing sent the puck back to Deslauriers who tossed a shot into the empty net for the final goal of the game.

Jones (8-1-2) earned his eighth win of the season stopping 30-of-31 shots.  Subban (0-3-0) took his third loss of the season making 30 saves on 33 shots.

Manchester was 1-for-2 on the power play.  Providence went 1-for-4 with the man advantage.

Notables:  Manchester leads the American Hockey League with a record of 8-1-1-2 for 19 points…The Monarchs have a record of 4-0-0-0 against the Providence Bruins this season…Left wing Andy Andreoff scored his second power play goal in as many games…Andreoff (2-1=3) and left wing Tanner Pearson (2-3=5) are on a three-game point streaks…Right wing Brandon Kozun is on a four-game point streak with seven points (1-6) dating back to Friday, October 25…Defenseman Nick Deslauriers (4-4=8) has scored a point in seven of his last eight games.

The Monarchs travel to Canada to play the St. John’s IceCaps at the Mile One Centre at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 8.  Catch all of the play-by-play action of Monarchs hockey with Ken Cail on the Monarchs Radio Network, WGIRAM.com and at www.manchestermonarchs.com, presented by Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.