Two weeks into the ECHL season, and the Manchester Monarchs are showing promise alongside areas where its clear that the rust is still slowly coming off.
Now with their first homestand complete, the Monarchs stand at 2-1-0-1 heading into their first road trip to Maine as an ECHL squad.
In that first homestand, Manchester took a 4-1 loss to the Newfoundland Growlers on Friday, followed by a 4-3 shootout victory against the red-hot Reading Royals on Saturday.
Despite Friday’s loss, the first road win in franchise history for Newfoundland, Monarchs coach Doug Christiansen was pleased with the latter half of the contest.
Indeed, the Monarchs outshot Newfoundland 32-9 over the final two frames, with Growlers goaltender Michael Garteig stymying all efforts to swing the momentum back toward the hosts.
“I thought we played well in the second and third, we controlled the play,” said Christensen. “If you replicate that play over a hundred games, you’re going to win a lot of them.”
In Saturday’s contest, Manchester struck early, but allowed the Royals to tie things up twice before giving up the lead completely in the second period.
Tony Cameranesi tied things up again in the third, letting Manchester avoid a second loss and setting the stage for what eventually would be Gasper Kopitar’s game-winner in the shootout.
“We need to be a team that when we get ahead, we stay on the attack,” said Christensen. “We’ll get that with confidence as we grow with time and we just need to remind ourselves not to concede the odd man rushes, especially when we are ahead.”
One notable statistic was the fact that there were only two Manchester penalties over both games combined, compared to nine during the two games in Brampton.
“We talked a lot about our team discipline, being a smart team,” said Christiansen any time you can take two penalties over an entire weekend, that’s a recipe for success.”
After four games, the Monarchs find themselves in the thick of things against a North Division packed with quick starts. As of Monday, they stand one point behind Adirondack, Newfoundland and Reading, tied with Brampton and one point ahead of Worcester and three points ahead of Maine.
On Wednesday, Maine seeks to rectify that situation against the Monarchs, with puck drop in Portland scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Monarchs will face Maine again in a 6 p.m. home matchup on Saturday, following a 7 p.m. home showdown against Worcester.
