AHL Morning Skate: May 12

Complete Schedule || Playoff Brackets || Today’s Scoreboard || League Leaders

   
Game 5 – 7:05 ET, AHL Live (MCH leads series, 3-1)
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The Manchester Monarchs took a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 5-2 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Monday night… Jordan Weal (10-5–15) recorded a hat trick to lead the Monarchs, keeping hold of the AHL’s playoff scoring race… Michael Mersch (6-7–13) added a shorthanded goal to place him first in AHL rookie playoff scoring… David Van der Gulik (2-3–5) found the back of the net for the second straight game… Vincent LoVerde (1-6–7), Brian O’Neill (6-5–11), Mersch, Van der Gulik, and Weal all posted multiple point games… J.F. Berube (6-3-0, 2.47, .889) turned aside 27-of-29 shots in the win… Justin Auger (1-1–2), Colin Miller (1-5–6), and Nick Shore (1-6–7) all added assists… Tom Kostopoulos (3-2–5) broke up the shutout bid at 10:58 of the third period for his second in as many games… 37 seconds later, Bryan Rust (2-0–2) scored his second in as many games, continuing to show no lag in his game after coming back from injury… Nick Drazenovic (0-1–1) and Brian Dumoulin (0-2–2) picked up assists… With an assist on the Rust goal, Conor Sheary (4-7–11) now has points in all playoff seven games he’s skated in… Matt Murray (4-3-0, 2.17, .930) stopped 21-of-24… Jeff Zatkoff stopped 1-of-2 in relief… The Penguins are 3-for-15 (20.0%) on the power play through four games, while Manchester has only struck twice on nine attempts (22.2%) with the extra man against Wilkes-Barre… Dating back to their first round series with Portland, the Monarchs have scored first in six of their nine playoff games so far, with three of those six goals coming within the first two minutes of regulation, and two more coming within the first 20 seconds of regulation.

Eastern Conference Semifinals – Series “I” (best-of-7)
1-Manchester Monarchs vs. 4-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Game 1 – Wed., May 6 – MANCHESTER 4, W-B/Scranton 3 (3OT)
Game 2 – Thu., May 7 – MANCHESTER 5, W-B/Scranton 2
Game 3 – Sat., May 9 – W-B/SCRANTON 2, Manchester 1
Game 4 – Mon., May 11 – Manchester 5, W-B/SCRANTON 2 
Game 5 – Tue., May 12 – Manchester at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 6 – Fri., May 15 – W-B/Scranton at Manchester, 7:00
*Game 7 – Sat., May 16 – W-B/Scranton at Manchester, 7:00
   *if necessary… All times Eastern

Last Night’s Recaps/Highlights
Lindberg leads Wolf Pack in Game 4
Weal hat trick sparks Monarchs in Game 4
Comets hang on to beat Barons in Game 3

May 8 – UTICA 2, Oklahoma City 1 (Alexandre Grenier, 3:32)
May 7 – Oklahoma City 2, UTICA 1 (Curtis Hamilton, 60:16)
May 6 – MANCHESTER 4, W-B/Scranton 3 (Zach O’Brien, 44:13)
May 6 – Hartford 2, HERSHEY 1 (Chris Bourque, 16:47)
May 1 – Chicago 4, UTICA 3 (Joel Edmundson, 2:19)
*May 1 – HARTFORD 3, Providence 2 (Tommy Hughes, 4:35)
*Apr. 29 – ROCKFORD 3, Texas 2 (Stephen Johns, 0:23)
*Apr. 29 – Oklahoma City 2, SAN ANTONIO 1 (Jujhar Khaira, 5:01)
Apr. 29 – UTICA 2, Chicago 1 (Darren Archibald, 10:58)
Apr. 26 – PROVIDENCE 2, Hartford 1 (Seth Griffith, 42:00)
Apr. 25 – OKLAHOMA CITY 4, San Antonio 3 (Connor Jones, 4:01)
Apr. 22 – Utica 3, CHICAGO 2 (Bobby Sanguinetti, 23:10)
  *series clincher