MANCHESTER, N.H. – While it remains to be seen if the Jacksonville Jaguars can leave New England with a win in tomorrow’s AFC Championship Game, their ice hockey brethren will leave the region with at least one win, earning a 4–2 win against the Manchester Monarchs on Saturday night.
New Icemen forward Bobby McIntyre recorded the game’s first goal, poaching a goal off a rebound from Brendan Collier’s slapshot 6:41 into the first period.
Alexx Privatera took the legs out from underneath Josh Erickson near the Monarchs’ bench later in the period, which would have just a clipping minor. However, he threw his helmet across the ice on the way to the penalty box, earning him a game misconduct departure.
Even though it was a 4-on-4 situation after Jacksonville’s Garrett Klotz briefly responded to Privatera, the Icemen took advantage of their growing momentum to add a second goal.
That goal came from Scott Savage, a casual wrister in front of goal that caught Monarchs goalkeeper Brandon Komm off guard.
The Monarchs avoided any further losses in that first period, but Erickson would make the most of a bad pass right in front of Manchester’s net with 10:48 left in the second period, one-timing it into the net for Jacksonville’s third goal.
Manchester got onto the board with just under six minutes left in the second period with a tip-in from Spencer Watson, a power play goal redirecting Matt Marcinew and Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman’s puck movement from the goal trapezoid in between the faceoff circles.
McIntyre added his second goal on a one-timer just seconds into third period, but the Monarchs weren’t done.
Just seconds after their fifth power play opportunity of the night concluded, Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman helped redirect home a blue line slapshot from Eric Shurhamer, to conclude the game’s scoreline.
The Monarchs (23-14-3-1) will seek revenge on Sunday afternoon against Jacksonville (12-22-3-2) before heading to Wheeling for a two-game set next weekend.
