ELMIRA, NY – The Elmira Jackals mounted a late charge in the third period, but could not overcome the Manchester Monarchs at First Arena, falling 4-2 on Halloween night.
The Jackals fell behind early as Maxim Kitsyn capitalized on an odd-man rush to notch the game’s first goal at 3:02 of the first period. Former Jackal and Rochester American Matt Mackenzie earned the lone assist on Kitsyn’s first of the year. The sole goal would be the difference after 20 minutes of action as Sam Marotta turned aside 16 Manchester shots.
The Monarchs increased their lead to 2-0 with another early tally coming at 2:40 of the second period. Matt Leitner popped in his second goal of the season with assists coming from Joe Diamond and Alex Lintuniemi. Just over two minutes later Manchester would go up 3-0 as Stefan Legein was the beneficiary of a pretty passing play from Matt Leitner and Joe Diamond. The Jackals pressed offensively throughout the frame but could not solve Michael Houser who stopped all 23 shots faced through 40 minutes.
Elmira mounted a late charge in the third period as Spiro Goulakos scored his first professional goal on a blast from the point that deflected off a defender and went bar-down on the man advantage at 17:36 of the frame. Taylor Stefishen and Nathan Oystrick recorded the helpers on Goulakos’ first goal. Sam Marotta headed to the bench for the extra attacker with 2:15 remaining and the Jackals down by two, but Alex Roach knocked in the empty-net goal at 18:36 to regain the three-goal lead. Just 18 seconds later Tyler Currier buried his second goal in as many games as a Jackal from Nick Zappia’s feed to cut the deficit back down to two. However, the Jackals would run out of time and fall to the Monarchs in their first ever meeting.
Sam Marotta turned aside 30 of 33 shots faced, but was handed his first loss of the season. Michael Houser stopped 38 of 40 shots faced and earned the win.
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.