MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester Monarchs opened up a weekend series against the Reading Royals on Friday night at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. Seven different Monarchs tallied a point as Manchester held on for a 3-2 win over the visiting Royals.
The Monarchs took over the game and set up their operation in the Royals defensive zone first. The Monarchs pounded goalie Connor Knapp and the Royals defense with shots, but nothing broke through Knapp. The Royals defense stood tall limiting the Monarchs to outside shots and very few second chances.
The Royals did find a little bit of offense as the period was winding down but Monarchs netminder Colin Stevens stayed strong despite the lack of work in the period. The first ended with the scored tied a nothing, and the shots 10-4 in favor of the Monarchs.
Manchester opened the second period just as strongly as it had played in the first. The Royals Mike Pereira took a penalty just six minutes into the second sending the Monarchs onto the power play. Derek Arnold converted on the man advantage to give the Monarchs the lead with assists going to Joe Lowry and Maxim Kitsyn. The Royals responded by turning the momentum against the Monarchs and started to get some opportunities of their own.
David Kolomatis went to the box for the Monarchs for delay of game, and that sent the Royals to the power play. The Roayls scored on the subsequent power play when Justin Crandall slide a Kevin Young pass through Stevens for the goal. Defenseman Adam Cormie got the secondary assist on the goal. The Monarchs answered just a few minutes later when Troy Power got one past Knapp, assisted by Alex Roach and Gasper Kopitar. The second ended with the Monarchs leading 2-1, and the shots 23 to 11 Monarchs.
The Royals came out firing at the beginning of the third period, but Stevens stayed strong. Zac Larraza scored for the Monarchs to give them a 3-1 lead. Assists on the score went to Yann Sauve and Matt Leitner.
The Royals continued to pressure the Monarchs, getting many quality scoring chances from all over the offensive zone. Stevens maintained his composure was solid in net and the Monarchs defense came up with some big blocks. As the game started winding down the Royals pulled their goalie and stepped their game up.
The Royals scored with just over a minute left when Pereira scored assisted by Maxim Lamarche. That was as close as the Royals would come, as the Monarchs hung onto the 3-2 victory.The final shots in the game were 28-22 in favor of the Monarchs.
Third star was awarded to Stevens for stopping 20 of the 23 shots he faced in route to the victory. Second star went to Power who scored the go-ahead goal for the Monarchs that helped lead to the win. The first star was given to Arnold who got the scoring started for the Monarchs and played an all-around solid game.
The Monarchs will continue this weekend series on Saturday night in Manchester when the team will celebrate Star Wars night.
Contact the author at James.McGowan@prohockeynews.com.
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