NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Throughout the 2016-17 ECHL regular season, the Manchester Monarchs proved themselves to be a formidable opponent on the road as well as at home. That success has spilled over into the Kelly Cup playoffs where the Monarchs have been just as tough to beat away from SNHU Arena as when they play in front of their home fans.
Saturday night at the North Charleston Coliseum, Manchester once again proved that its status as “road warriors” has been earned.
Behind a balanced scoring attack and more clutch goaltending by Sam Brittain, the Monarchs defeated the South Carolina Stingrays 4-3 to take a two games to none lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals. Quentin Shore led the offense with a goal and an assist and seven other Manchester players picked up at least one point.
Game three is set for Monday night in North Charleston.
The Monarchs have now won ten games during the post-season, putting them two victories away from their first Kelly Cup championship series. Six of those victories have come away from home.
Playing with more confidence after Friday night’s game one victory, the Monarchs seized control of the game with two goals in a span of 3:25 in the first period. The first came at the 7:35 mark when Zac Lynch fired a wrist shot over the catching glove of Stingrays goalie Parker Milner for his sixth goal of the playoffs. Using defenseman Danny Federico as a partial screen, Lynch caught Milner leaning toward the middle and a potential pass by going short side with his shot.
Then with nine minutes left in the opening frame, Shore was in the right place to deposit the rebound of a shot by Thomas Schemitsch into the back of the net for his fifth post-season tally.
Faced with a two-goal deficit, the Stingrays woke up and began pounding shots at Brittain. Over the course of the final nine minutes of the period, South Carolina logged twelve shots but Brittain, a goaltending prospect for the Florida Panthers, turned every one of them away on the way to a 16-save frame and a 2-0 Monarchs lead after one.
Frustration started to set in on the Stingrays side of the ice early in the second, giving the Monarchs a couple of chances to extend the lead but South Carolina’s penalty killing units came up big and kept the margin at two.
Despite missing out on those power play chances, Manchester was able to get its third goal at the 8:54 mark of the second period. It came when Craig Wyszomirski took a feed from Ashton Rome and beat Milner between the legs. For Wyszomirski, it was his second goal of the playoffs.
Late in the frame, South Carolina was finally able to solve Brittain. At the 14:34 mark, a defensive zone turnover by the Monarchs put the puck on the stick of Marcus Perrier our near the blue line. Perrier immediately fired on net and the shot eluded the Manchester netminder for Perrier’s first tally of the series and the post-season.
A late second period flare up left the Stingrays short-handed but Milner kept the Monarchs off the board with a multiple save sequence to end the frame. He was not so lucky early in the third as during the carryover time on the power play, Kevin Morris floated a shot past the goalie’s blocker glove for his fifth of the playoffs and second in as many nights.
Down by three, the Stingrays ramped up their offense and got back into the game. At the 4:13 mark, a shot by Derek Arnold squeezed its way through Brittain’s pads and dropped into the crease. Rob Flick was able to get to the puck first and pushed it across the goal line for his eighth goal of the playoffs.
Four minutes later, South Carolina was on a power play when when Flick turned a pass from Andrew Cherniwchan on net. Brittain made the initial save but Joe Devin was there to cash in the rebound for his third goal of the post-season to make it a 4-3 game.
The Stingrays pushed hard for the tying score but Brittain refused to yield. Milner was pulled for an extra attacker with 1:36 to go in regulation but the Monarchs were able to hang on to record the win.
Notes: Manchester finished the game 1-for-7 on the power play while South Carolina went 1-for-3… Brittain stopped 44 shots to record his tenth victory of the playoffs. His counterpart Milner made 21 saves in the loss… Manchester’s Morris has goals in each of his last three games and four out of his last five.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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