MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com -ALBANY, NY— Nineteen year-old center Andrei Loktionov scored three goals and added an assist as his Manchester Monarchs defeated the Albany River Rats 6-3 in front of 6,507 fans Saturday night at the Times Union Center.

After trailing 3-1 through 39 minutes of action the River Rats clawed their way back to even with a Brett Carson score late in the second period, followed by Chris Terry’s first career professional goal to open the third. However, the Monarch’s exploded for three-straight goals, including Loktionov’s third of the night, to seal a 6-3 decision.

After being caught flat-footed to start the game, the River Rats dominated the second period and out-shot Manchester 14-4, but Monarchs goalie Jonathan Bernier lived-up to his first-round draft-pick billing and kept Albany off the board for most of the frame. With 0.4 seconds to play, River Rats assistant captain Brett Carson made it a 3-2 game with a high screamer from the point. Albany knotted the game two minutes into the third period on Terry’s power play tally, but midway through the frame Joe Piskula restored the Monarchs one goal lead. After Loktionov completed his hat trick, Gabe Gauthier added Manchester final tally of the night.

The Monarchs struck first in the game when Loktionov found Brandon Segal all alone in front of the River Rats net for a short-side score. Midway through the frame Loktionov was on the receiving end of a pass-in-front and the rookie finished the play with a back-door put-away. The River Rats found some life at 16:43 when first-year forward Drayson Bowman scored his first professional goal, but Loktinov answered again with a close-range tap-in to finish the frame with a 3-1 lead.

Manchester goalie Jonathan Bernier stopped 35-of-38 shots faced to earn the win as the Monarchs improved to 1-0-0-0 on the season. Albany goaltender Justin Peters made 25 saves on 31 shots faced and took the loss as the River Rats fell to 0-1-0-0. Albany out-shot Manchester 38-31 in the contest and went 1-for-6 on the power play; the Monarchs were 0-for-1 on the man advantage.

Albany faces the Portland Pirates on Friday, October 9^th at 7:00 p.m. at the Times Union Center.

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