ADIRONDACK, NY – The Manchester Monarchs dropped to second place in the Atlantic Division for the first time since October 18 as they fell 3-1 to the Adirondack Phantoms at the Glens Falls Civic Center on Friday night.

Manchester (29-16-2-5) felled into second place in the Atlantic Division with 65 points.  Adirondack (23-22-2-2) is in fourth place in the East Division with 50 points.

With less than two minutes left in the second period, center Jonathan Kalinski scored his fifth goal of the season to give the Phantoms a 2-1 lead.  Skating in all alone on goaltender Jonathan Bernier, Kalinski beat the netminder with a backhand shot.  Center Ryan Dingle and right wing Jason Ward assisted on the go-ahead goal.

The Phantoms struck first at 3:43 of the opening period when left wing Mila Pyorala tipped in his first goal of the season.  Former Monarchs defenseman Joey Mormina fired a shot from the right point that Pyorala redirected past Bernier.  Center Jared Ross picked up an assist on the first goal of the game.

Left wing Dwight King tied the game at 5:53 of the second period with his fourth goal of the season.  Right wing Kevin Westgarth battled along the end boards and backhanded the puck to King at the left hash mark.  King one-timed the puck into the left corner of the net past goaltender Johan Backlund.  Right wing John Zeiler assisted on the tying goal.

Center Jon Matsumoto finished the Monarchs off with an empty net goal at 19:51.  Right wing David Laliberte assisted on the final goal of the game.

Bernier (21-12-5) took his 12th loss of the season with 29 saves on 31 shots.  Backlund (15-10-2) picked up his 15th win of the season with 24 saves.

Manchester was 0-for-2 on the power play.  Adirondack was also 0-for-3 with the man advantage.

Notables:  Manchester fell out of first place in the Atlantic Division for the first time since they took the lead on October 18, 2009…Monarchs goaltender Jonathan Bernier’s shutout streak ended at 152:17 when left wing Mila Pyorala scored his first goal of the season…Bernier’s longest shutout of the season is 160:35 from October 16-30, 2009.

The Monarchs head to Connecticut on Saturday, February 6 to face-off with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at 7:00 p.m. at the Arena at Harbor Yard.  Catch all of the play-by-play action of Monarchs hockey with Ken Cail on the Monarchs Radio Network WGAM 900/1250 AM and at www.manchestermonarchs.com.