Monarchs Split Opening Weekend on the Road

The New Hampshire Junior Monarchs opened up their 2009-2010 season on the road playing games against the Bridgewater Bandits and the Bay State Breakers. The Monarchs split on the weekend defeating the Bandits 5-4 on Saturday, and falling to the Breakers Sunday afternoon 3-2.
Saturday’s contest would prove to be a great back-and-forth game as the Monarchs would open up the scoring on a powerplay goal by Pat Doherty from Zak Stone and Brice O’Connor. They would finish the first period trailing 3-1 however, giving up 3 goals in less than a minute and a half. The Monarchs would return to the ice in the second period ready to topple their 2-goal deficit. Alex Gacek would start the scoring on a goal assisted by Aaron Kesselman at the 5:33 mark of the period. Cody Sharib would tie the game less than two minutes later on a nice goal set up by Pat Kiley and George Lotito. 30 seconds later it would be Jamie Ferullo putting the Monarchs ahead when he fought through a defender to bury a rebound off of a great setup shot from Zak Stone. Kyle Mountain also assisted on the goal. At 16:35 of the period it would be Gacek again, hammering home a great feed from Trent Ruffolo. Zak Stone would add his third assist of the game on that goal as well. 5 goals would prove to hold as all the Bandits could put by goaltender Brian Billett in the third period was 1 to make the final score 5-4.
Sunday the Monarchs would travel to Kingston, MA to visit the new home of the Bay State Breakers, The Bog. The first half of period one was fast paced with the Monarchs generating transition chances off of Bay State’s full throttle attack. Bay State’s high-powered offense would strike first however, and the Monarchs would be down 1-0 after one. Period two would be no different, with both teams throwing all that they had offensively at the other. Unfortunately the Monarchs would not capitalize on their 2 powerplays, whereas the Breakers would go 1 for 1 in the second, making the score 2-0 Breakers after two. The team would rally in the third and came out flying. Kyle Mountain would cut the lead to 1 on a goal from Zak Stone and Brice O’Connor early in the period. At the 10:26 mark, Mountain would strike again, this time on the powerplay on a goal assisted again by Stone and Brooks Herrington as well. The two teams would stay knotted at 2 until late in the game, when the Breakers’ Colin South would get lost off of a Monarchs’ defensive zone faceoff to score a net front goal and put the Breakers ahead 3-2. Despite a few “Grade A” scoring chances including one loud post, the Monarchs would not be able to come back in the final minutes of this game, and they would leave Kingston with their first loss of the season.
The team will be on display this weekend in Marlboro, MA at the Junior Bruins Showcase. They face off against the Springfield Pics Friday at 9 am, the CD Selects Saturday at 9:30 am, and the Jersey Hitmen at 6:40 pm.