ORLANDO, Fla. – Doug Carr’s 39 saves and three consecutive second period goals helped push the Manchester Monarchs past the Orlando Solar Bears, 3-1, Thursday night at the Amway Center.
The Monarchs (27-12-1-4) have now taken the first two meetings with the Solar Bears (17-18-2-3), and look for the three-game sweep tomorrow evening.
After a scoreless first period, Alex Guptill started the Manchester scoring, netting his 11th goal of the season. While on the man-advantage, Guptill parked to the right of Solar Bears goaltender, Rob Madore, and found the puck that trickled through Madore’s arm off of an Alex Roach shot for the tap-in goal at 3:33 of the second period.
Derek Arnold doubled the Monarchs lead, scoring his 12th goal of the season at 8:40 of the middle frame. Joey Diamond started the chance by throwing the puck into traffic in front of the Orlando net, and the puck hit off of Arnold’s leg into a wide-open cage.
The Manchester lead grew when Mark Anthoine potted his 5th goal of the season at 13:23. Anthoine took a sneaky pass from Gasper Kopitar that sent him alone on Madore, and picked the top left corner on a snap shot, sending the water bottle for a ride and giving the Monarchs a 3-0 lead.
Manchester found themselves in a parade to the penalty box in the third period, taking five penalties in the frame, and Orlando finally made the Monarchs pay. Rylan Schwartz broke through for the Solar Bears at 18:42 of the third period, beating Carr on the 40th shot the net-minder faced.
The Monarchs are back on the ice tomorrow night (7 p.m.) to finish their three-game series with the Orlando Solar Bears from the Amway Center.
Notes
- Danick Paquette extended his point streak to six games (3g, 3a)
- Maxim Kitsyn has now scored points in 9-of-10 games (5g, 7a), grabbing his 110th career point
- Joey Diamond extended his point streak to seven games (3g, 6a)
- Manchester is now 17-0-0-2 when leading after the second period
- The Monarchs are now 22-0-0-1 when scoring 3+ goals in a game
