In the franchise’s first playoff series of its brief existence, the
Manchester Monarchs played extremely well and created excitement and high
expectations for next year’s season. They lost game one despite a 26 save
performance by Travis Scott and the team’s first-ever playoff goal in its
history by Adam Mair. In games two and three, the Monarchs came out strong
winning 4-3 and 6-2 respectively. Mair paced the Monarchs in the game three
romping by scoring his first career playoff hat trick. Unfortunately, the
Monarchs were unable to the one of the series’ final two games. On a
brighter note, the crowd of 8,759 fans at the Verizon Wireless Arena for
Friday’s Manchester-Hartford Game 4 was the largest AHL playoff crowd since
Quebec and Saint John played before a crowd of 8,873 at Le Colisee Pepsi
last April, signifying that playoff hockey has captured the people of
Manchester.
In another note, Monarchs veteran, Ted Donato joined the USA team at the
World Championships and he has performed admirably and the team has clinched
a berth in the quarterfinal round despite losing to Jaromir Jagr and the
Czech Republic.
It will be very interesting to see this summer what players move from the
Manchester roster and what Kings prospects are given a look for the upcoming
season. According to a source, Mike Cammalleri could possibly sign with the
Kings but we will have to wait and see.
