Grumet-Morris, Newburry lead Whale to 1-0 win

MANCHESTER, NH – Dov Grumet-Morris made 25 saves for his first Connecticut Whale shutout, and Kris Newbury’s third-period goal was the only scoring in the game, in a 1-0 Whale win over the first-place Manchester Monarchs Friday night at the Verizon Wireless Arena.
 
The victory, combined with the Worcester Sharks’ 4-1 loss in Providence, moved the Whale (34-26-2-6, 76 pts.) back into sole possession of third place in the Atlantic Division, two points ahead of the Sharks.  It was also only the Whale’s second win in their eight-game season series with the Monarchs (2-5-0-1)
 
The first period was evenly played, with the shots 10-9 in favor of the Whale, but Manchester goaltender Jeff Zatkoff (32 saves) was forced to shine in the second.
 
The Whale had 16 shots to the Monarchs eight in the second frame but were unable to solve Zatkoff, who did particularly strong work on a pair of Connecticut power plays.
 
Connecticut finally broke the scoreless tie at 2:47 of the third session, with Newbury getting his 15^th goal of the season and his sixth in the last seven games.
 
Newbury led a breakout from the Whale zone, then moved to the left-wing side of the slot in the Manchester end, where he took a pass from Brodie Dupont and fired a shot that Zatkoff got a piece of with his left arm but could not stop.
 
The goal extended a point streak for Newbury, the Whale’s leading point-scorer (15-38-53 in 58 games), to seven straight games (6-5-11).
 
The Whale start a stretch of five straight home games Saturday night at the XL Center against the Providence Bruins at 7:00 PM. 
 
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