GLENS FALLS, N.Y. – It’s always hard for a team to climb out of a deficit in the playoffs, but it’s harder when your down 3-0. The Monarchs started that climb on Monday night when they beat the Thunder 2-1. It’s a long road back to the top and it started here with this victory.
Doug Carr started in net for the Monarchs opposed by Ken Appleby for the Thunder, appleby was 3-0 heading into this start. The Monarchs came right out firing right from the drop of the puck. They tested Appleby early and often trying to climb their way back into the series.
The Thunder were trapped in their own zone for much of the first period, and Appleby was under siege from all areas. The Thunder were able to generate chances of their own, but only for the outside. The Monarchs continued to fire on all cylinders as the period went on.
Though they were unable to get anything past Appleby and couldn’t break the tie in the first. The first period ended in zeros with the shots being 20 to 10 in favor of the Monarchs. The Second period was a little bit of a different story for the Monarchs. The struggled early in the period and couldn’t really find their rhythm though much of the first.
It was more of a defensive game during the second period, each team sold out to block more and more shots. Plus when they the shots broke through to the goalie, they were both up the task of stopping them. Matt Leitner danced through the slot and finally broke the tie getting the Monarchs on the board first.
Joey Diamond and Matt Fornataro got the assists on the games first goal. The Thunder upped the pressure on the Monarchs and they started to show some cracks. Mark Anthoine took a roughing penalty that put the Thunder on the power play.
Ryan Lomberg scored on the power play to tie the game, Greg Wolfe and Ryan Constant got the assists on the goal. The second period ended tied a one and the shots 29 to 24 for the Monarchs. The third period was just more of the same from the second.
Both teams struggled to get shots through, and couldn’t anything though the neutral zone. The Monarchs were the better of the two teams being able to get more and more chances early. The Thunder weren’t able to get anything past the stout Monarchs defense.
The Monarchs broke the tie halfway through period on a goal from Darik Angeli assisted by Zac Larraza. The Monarchs went into shut down mode after that goal forcing everything to the outside. Doug Carr was more then up to the task of keeping the Thunder’s shots out of his net.
The Thunder made a huge push at the end of the game to try and tie it up. But Doug Carr made a bunch of saves in tight and capped it off by flashing the leather on Wolfe. The Monarchs were able to hang onto win the game 2-1 with the final shots 36 to 30 for the Monarchs.
Third star Doug Carr, he made 29 saves in the season saving victory for the Monarchs. Second star Ryan Lomberg, he scored the only goal for the Thunder in the loss. First star Darik Angeli, he scored the game winner for the Monarchs which was also the first playoff goal of his career.
Game 5 is back at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Wednesday night at 7.
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