The game was only two and a half minutes old when Monarch instigator Richard Clune singled out Matt Calvert for a good old fashioned talkin’-to. Calvert came out on the short end of the scrap and worse for the wear, both skaters, despite Clune’s obvious aggression, took minors for roughing as well as five for fighting.
The Monarchs scored the first goal of the game at 11:16 when Brandon Kozun was Johnny-on-the-spot, picking up a loose puck while Falcons goalie Paul Dainton followed the play on the opposite side of the cage. Dainton committed a huge OOPS at 15:43 when he whiffed on a slapshot from center ice by Patrick Mullen. 2-0 Manchester at the end of the first period.
Dainton redeemed himself and then some in the early stages of the middle stanza, when he saved not one but two breakaways. The first was a short handed bid on Marc-Andre Cliche. Moments later as Nick Deslauriers came out of the penalty box, picked up a long pass in the neutral zone and once again Paully D was equal to the task. Those were two of the better scoring opportunities of the period, all the rest went for naught and after two, the score remained 2-0 in favor of Manchester.
Clune was back in the box early in the third period. Cody Goloubef had a hard time handling a pass at the blue line when Stefan Legein broke out on a two-on-one. Legein held onto the disc and one timed a shorty past Dainton, giving the Monarchs a 3-0 lead at 2:03.
Jeff Zatkoff recorded 28 saves, earning his first shutout of the season. The Falcons return home on Saturday night for a 7PM faceoff against the Syracuse Crunch.