The Manchester Monarchs have less than a dozen games left in the regular season, but a playoff spot is far from assured.
It’s March 11, 2019, here’s what’s been going on in Monarchs Country.
Saturday, March 9 – Manchester 3, Adirondack 1 (Road)
Sunday, March 10 – Manchester 3, Norfolk 2 (Home – Overtime)
Between the birthday of the Monarchs’ mascot Max and a visit from the Stanley Cup, Sunday was a busy day at SNHU Arena, capped off with the Monarchs’ seventh point in their last five games.
Following the weekend’s conclusion, the Monarchs remain on pace for a playoff spot thanks to this week’s momentum-building victories.
While Sunday’s win certainly provided a boost given the fact that things looked like they were slipping away, Norfolk is a team that the Monarchs dominated earlier in the season on the road. Adirondack, on the other hand, has given Manchester problems, perhaps most notably during the Thunder’s eight-goal explosion last week.
However, Monarchs Head Coach Doug Christiansen is understandably happy for both victories, particularly given the inherent fatigue from playing a Sunday matinee after a late Saturday contest and losing an hour to Daylight Savings Time.
“Four points, this time of year, that’s the most important thing,” said Christiansen. “(On Saturday), we skated well. (On Sunday), I think the time change took a bit out of us early, we were pretty sluggish, but we got better as we went on.”
From here on, each one of the Monarchs’ games is a divisional contest, facing every North Division team except for Adirondack and Reading at some point.
Fortunately for the Monarchs, this week brought a bevy of transactions, most notably the upcoming addition of Pierre Luc-Mercier from the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush.
Mercier led the Rush this season with 37 points, tallying 79 points in 124 career ECHL games.
“There’s no question, anytime you can get the leading scorer from another team, that’s going to help you,” said “With Brent Miller, anytime you can get someone who can score 15 goals as a defenseman in this league is going to be a big help, and he brings pucks out of the zone and can create offense for us. And of course, bringing back (Stephan) Falkovsky. He’s a difference maker at this level, and we’re thrilled to have him.”
“We want our guys to embrace this challenge, we’ve been playing playoff hockey for a long time. It might not be called playoff hockey,” said Christiansen “We kept working, kept battling and we’re going to keep on doing that until the end.”
Three Stars
Top Star: Charles Williams – (2-0-0-0, 1.49 GAA, .946 save percentage)
Second Star: Tony Cameranesi – (2 goals, 1 assist, +1, 9 shots)
Third Star: David Kolomatis (0 goals, 2 assists, E, 2 shots)
