MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester Monarchs continued their weekend home stand with the Reading Royals on Saturday night for Star Wars night at the Verizon Wireless Arena. The Monarchs wore specialty storm trooper jerseys for the game but the force was strong in the visitors as the Royals came away with a 3-0 win.
The game started with both team creating early rushes and testing the goalies – Manchester’s Colin Stevens and Reading’s Adam Morrison – early at both ends of the ice. They went back and forth and with each ensuing rush, the game got a little chippier. Tensions finally boiled over as Danick Paquette dropped the gloves with Derek Mathers, sending both off the ice for fighting.
Neither team could find momentum from the early bout and continued to trade rushes back and forth. As the period got to the later stages, a Stefan Legein roughing minor put the Monarchs down a man. The Royals took advantage, scoring with 58 seconds left in the period on a shot from Matt Hatch assisted by Adam Comrie and Justin Crandall. The first period ended with the Royals leading 1-0, and the shots 11-8 in favor of the Monarchs.
The second period started out with the Monarchs going back on the penalty kill when Troy Power went off for hooking. The Monarchs had a great kill with many players completely selling out to block some quality Royals shots.
Both teams battled hard, but neither team could find an advantage in the game. A Royals player went a little high on a hit on a Monarchs player, setting off Alex Roach who pounded the Royals player. The Royals player never dropped his gloves and Roach was given a five minute major for fighting and a game misconduct for being aggressive.
The Royals were sent on a five minute power play and forced the Monarchs to be stellar in their zone. With the penalty winding down, the Royals scored as Comrie lit the goal light assisted by Yannick Tifu and Crandall. The Monarchs were all over the Royals, but Morrison continued to turn away their chances.
The scariest moment of the game happened when a Monarch turnover led to a Royals breakaway, and the Royals player tripped up on the play by David Kolomatis slammed into Stevens. The Monarchs’ netminder was down on the ice in obvious pain and had to be helped off the ice and would not return. Stevens was replaced by Steve Mastalerz who was making his profession debut in relief. The second period ended with the Monarchs trailing 2-0 and the shots favoring the Royals 24-17.
Manchester came out in the third looking to find some offense and to finally solve Morrison. The Monarchs came out firing with chances from all areas in the offensive zone, but Morrison stayed strong. Limited to initial shots with no rebounds, the Monarchs just could not solve Morrison as they peppered him with shots as the period wore on. The Monarchs had zero luck as none of the bounces in the game in the game seemed to go their way.
As the third wound down, the Royals struck again. Robbie Czarnik did the honors, scoring the goal assisted by Crandall and Todd Perry. The game ended with the Monarchs falling to the Royals 3-0 and the shots even at 30.
Third star in the contest went to Reading’s Hatch who started the scoring off for the Royals. Second star belonged to Comrie with a goal and two assists in the game. First star went to Rotyals goalie Morrison who stopped all 30 shots he faced to earn the shutout victory.
The two teams will conclude their weekend set on Sunday afternoon in Manchester.
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