BRAMPTON, ONT – Sam Brittain was the star of the night, and the Manchester Monarchs beat the Brampton Beast 3-1 Saturday night at the Powerade Centre.
The Monarchs leave Ontario with a split in the North Division Finals, and will play three at SNHU Arena against the Beast starting Monday night.
The Beast opened the scoring at 13:24 of the opening period when Brandon MacLean scored his fifth goal of the playoffs. While on the power play, Jordan Henry sent a centering pass off the leg of Tyler Sikura that then pin-balled off MacLean and past Brittain to put the Beast on top 1-0.
The Monarchs tied the score at 1-1 when Daniel Ciampini netted his first goal of the playoffs at 6:22 of the second period. Ciampini went in on a rush that Beast goaltender, Zach Fucale stopped, but the rebound popped out to Matt Leitner in the slot. Leitner then found Ciampini who was camped to the right of the cage, where the Ontario native sent a backhander past a diving Fucale to even the score.
The Monarchs took their first lead of the game when Quentin Shore netted his 3rd goal of the playoffs at 11:01 of the second period. Daniel Doremus created a turnover deep in the Monarchs defensive zone and went on a 2-on-1 with Shore on the right wing. Shore took the puck just outside the blue line, skated to the top of the circle and fired a wrister past the glove of Fucale to make the score 2-1 in favor of Manchester.
Manchester sealed the deal at 19:30 of the final frame when Craig Wyszomirski scored his first goal of the playoffs. With Fucale pulled for an extra attacker, Wyszomirski pushed a backhander over the line with a Brampton defender draped on his back for the empty-net-goal.
The Monarchs return home to SNHU Arena on Monday, May 1 at 7 p.m. when they host the Brampton Beast in Game 3 of the North Division Finals.
Notes: Matt Leitner recorded the 10th point of his ECHL playoff career… Daniel Ciampini scored his first profession playoff goal… Manchester’s penalty kill streak came to an end at 23 straight… Craig Wyszomirski scored his first career playoff goal.
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