The Monarchs come back to beat the Royals in OT

On Wednesday night the Manchester Monarchs traveled to Pennsylvania to take on the Reading Royals. Colin Stevens started in net for the Monarchs opposed by Martin Ouellette for the Royals. The Monarchs struggle off of the opening face off, the Royals were taking it to Stevens right away. 

Stevens was forced to make some huge saves early in the game just to keep the Monarchs in the game.  The Monarchs defense was struggling early and struggled to get the puck out of the zone. The royals struck first in the game on a goal from Pavel Padakin, Nick Luukko and Mike Pereira assisted the goal.

The Monarchs started to get opportunities after the Royals took the lead, but Ouellette shut down any second chance opportunity. Michael Boivin was called for cross checking with two minutes left in the first, that put the Royals on the power play. Robbie Czarnik scored on the power play assisted by Mike Marcou and Yannick Tifu.

The first period ended with the Monarchs trailing 2-0 and the shots 15 to 7 for the Royals. The Monarchs came back for the second looking to even the scoring and get back in the game. Ian Watters was called for interference giving the Monarchs the man advantage.

Dannick Paquette converted for the Monarchs assisted by Michael Leitner and Maxim Kitsyn. The Royals scored just 19 seconds later to take lead back, this time it was Brandon Alderson assisted by Mike Pereira. After the goal the Monarchs went to work, they set up right in the Royals zone.

The Monarchs pounded Ouellete with chances, but struggled to get anything past him. The Royals defense stepped when they really needed it, the kept chances to the outside and limited second chances. At the other end Colin Stevens made huge saves to keep the Monarchs within two goals.

The second period ended with the Monarchs trailing 3-1 and the shots 22-22. The Monarchs came back out for the third period looking to even the score. The Monarchs were all over the Royals in the first and drew a penalty when Kevin Young went off for tripping.

The Monarchs scored on the ensuing power play on a goal from the red hot Matt Fornataro. The Monarchs were back within one and stayed on top the Royals after scoring the goal. The Royal’s defense seemed to be falling apart, they started to allow more and more chances in the slot.

The Monarchs continued to pound away at Ouellete, but he stood on his head and keep the Monarchs out of the net. The clock ticked to under a minute and it looked as if the Monarchs would fall. Dannick Paquette scored with 21.7 seconds left to tie the game, Michael Boivin assisted the goal.

The third ended in a 3-3 tie and we were heard to OT, the shots after three were 34 to 30 for the Monarchs. The Monarchs came back out for the OT period riding their momentum. Colin Stevens continued his out standing night with four saves in the overtime on odd man rushes.

Alex Roach took a pass from Michael Leitner and buried it past Ouellete to win the game for the Monarchs. The final score was 4-3 Monarchs and the final shots were 39 to 34. Third star Brandon Alderson, he scored the second goal for the Royals and almost helped them beat the Monarchs.

Second star Mike Pereira, he had two assists in the game and played a solid defensive game overall. First star Alex Roach, he scored the game winner for the Monarchs and helped complete the comeback. The Monarchs will take on the Reading Royals again at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Saturday night.