MANCHESTER, N.H. — Brandon Segal scored twice against his former tea, Dustin Tokarski made 25 saves in his first game of the series and the Norfolk Admirals’ penalty kill remained perfect as the AHL’s regular season champions defeated the Manchester Monarchs, 5-2, in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Wednesday night at Verizon Wireless Arena. The Admirals now lead the best-of-five series, 2-1, and have a chance to close out the Monarchs Friday night in Manchester. Pierre-Cedric Labrie and Philip-Michael Devos each scored their first career playoff goals while Alexandre Picard netted his team-leading fourth goal of the postseason. Norfolk also got three assists from Trevor Smith and two helpers each from Alex Killorn and Cory Conacher. The Admirals killed off all six Manchester power play opportunities to improve to 20-for-20 on the penalty kill in the series, while Tokarski (1-0) earned his third career playoff victory in his first game of the series. Norfolk took a 1-0 lead just 35 seconds into the contest when Killorn carried the puck into the attacking zone along the right wing before sending it to Evan Oberg in the right circle. Oberg slipped past a defenseman before shuffling the puck to his left. Segal, who played for Manchester in 2009-2010, took the puck between the hashmarks and fired the puck past Manchester goaltender Martin Jones. Norfolk doubled the lead just over seven minutes later. Smith sent a feed from the left corner to Labrie in the left faceoff circle, and Labrie sent a shot over Jones’ blocker at 7:40. Manchester cut Norfolk’s lead to one goal less than four minutes later. Linden Vey spotted Robbie Czarnik in the slot, and Czarnik sent a quick backhand shot through the leg pads of Tokarski at 11:06. The Admirals struck back at 4:31 of the second period when Mike Kostka sent a shot from the high slot that Jones stopped. However, Devos found the rebound in the low slot and sent a shot through Jones’ to make the score 3-1. Manchester again closed the gap less than nine minutes later, when Vey intercepted a puck at the right point of the Norfolk zone and cut towards the slot. He dropped a pass in the high slot to Stefan Legein, who sent a slap shot over the glove of Tokarski at 12:51 to cut the visitors’ lead to 3-2. Norfolk iced the game in the second half of the final period after Legein was whistled for boarding, giving Norfolk a five-minute, major power play. Picard scored at 14:45 off a rebound opportunity to put Norfolk ahead, 4-2. Segal then sealed the victory at 18:32 with an empty-net goal. Jones (1-1) stopped 28 of 32 shots for the Monarchs. Comment@prohockeynews.com
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