BRAMPTON, ONT – The Manchester Monarchs defeated the Brampton Beast in Game 6 of the North Division Finals 5-4 Friday night at the Powerade Centre.
With the victory, the Monarchs eliminated the Beast and now look forward to the South Carolina Stingrays in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Brampton opened the scoring when David Pacan scored his first goal of the playoffs at 6:05 of the opening period. Pacan took a pass out of the slot from Brandon Marino to the right of Monarchs goaltender, Sam Brittain, and slid the puck into an open-net to put the Beast up 1-0.
Manchester tied the game when Ashton Rome netted his fifth goal of the post-season at 14:35 of the opening period. Rome picked the pocket of the Beast defender and fired a wrister from the left dot past the blocker of Beast goaltender, Zachery Fucale to even the score at 1-1.
The Beast took the lead back late in the first period when Reggie Traccitto potted his second goal of the playoffs at 19:52. Traccitto went in on a 2-on-1 with Pacan and fired a one-timer from the top of the left circle that beat the blocker of Brittain and made the score 2-1 in favor of Brampton.
The Monarchs tied the game again when Kevin Morris recorded his third goal of the playoffs. Morris carried the puck into the Brampton end and fired a wrister from the slot that beat the glove of Fucale to make the score 2-2 at the 4:30 mark of the middle frame.
Brampton took the lead again when Luke Pither scored his second goal of the playoffs at 18:33 of the second period. Pither carried the puck out of the right corner and flipped the puck toward the Monarchs cage that bounced and found its way through three Monarchs defenders and past Brittain to put the Beast up 3-2 heading into the third period.
The Monarchs got back to even early in the third period when Rome scored his second goal of the night just 23 seconds in. While skating 4-on-4, Rome and Alexx Privitera went in on a 2-on-1 break. Privitera was the pivot on a give-and-go and fed Rome on the doorstep for an easy tap-in goal that tied the game at 3-3.
Manchester took their first lead of the night when Zac Lynch scored his fifth goal of the playoffs at 5:03 of the third stanza. Lynch took a clean face-off win from Matt Leitner off the right dot to the net, put a forehand-to-backhand deke on Fucale and roofed the go-ahead-goal for the Monarchs to make the score 4-3.
Brampton tied the game at 4-4 on the power play when Pacan scored his second goal of the game at 11:11 of the third period. After extended pressure in the Monarchs zone, Pacan found the loose puck to the left of Brittain and chipped the puck over the downed goaltender to even the score.
Matt Leitner put the Monarchs on top for good at 15:38 of the third period when he scored his sixth goal of the playoffs. Leitner was camped to the left of Fucale and was the recipient of a deflected pass off the stick of Lynch from the left wall and tapped the puck home to give the Monarchs a 5-4 lead.
The Monarchs will open the Eastern Conference Finals against the South Carolina Stingrays in North Charleston, S.C., on Friday, May 12th at 7:05 p.m.
Notes: Monarchs improve to 3-1 when trailing entering the third period… Monarchs advance to Eastern Conference Finals for first time since 2015… Brampton’s David Pacan scored four points in the game.
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