EXETER, NH – The Maine Mariners marked their franchise debut with a 5-2 pre-season win over the Manchester Monarchs on Sunday.
Maine started the scoring at 10:48 of the first period on the first goal of the preseason for Ryan Badger. Tyler Maltby skated the puck along the left wing into the Mariners offensive zone, where he fed a pass into the slot for Badger, who roofed a shot over the glove of Monarchs goaltender, Charles Williams, to make the score, 1-0.
The Mariners added to their lead on the power play at 17:23 of the first period, on the first goal of the season for John Furgele. After getting the puck at the top of the left circle, Furgele weaved his way into the slot and wristed a shot past Williams, to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead.
Maine extended their lead at 7:43 and 12:28 of the second period on a goal by Drew Melanson and a power-play tally by Mike Marnell, to make the score, 4-0.
Spencer Watson got the Monarchs on the board at 15:01 of the second period, scoring his first of the season. Watson received a pass in the slot from Matt Marcinew, and beat Mariners goaltender, Chris Nell, above his pad, to make the score, 4-1.
Goals by Dwyer Tschantz of the Mariners and Stepan Falkovsky of the Monarchs finished off the scoring on the night, resulting in a 5-2 Mariners victory.
Sunday’s contest was the Monarchs’ only pre-season game, a warm-up for their regular season opener in Brampton, Ontario, on Oct. 13 and home opener against the Newfoundland Growlers on Oct. 19.
Earlier in the week, the Monarchs brought back defenseman Craig Wyszomirski to a Standard Player Contract for the 2018-’19 season.
Wyszomirski, 26, returns to the Monarchs after scoring 15 points on two goals and 13 assists, while adding 81 penalty minutes, during the 2017-18 campaign. In his career with the Monarchs, Wyszomirski has totaled 27 points on six goals and 21 assists in 115 games played.
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound native of Mahwah, N.J., played three seasons at Merrimack College from 2013 to 2016, where he skated in 74 games, while recording two goals and three assists to go along with 54 penalty minutes.
Wyszomirski has played in 10 AHL games during his career with the Syracuse Crunch (7) and the Ontario Reign (3).
