Monarchs dump Pirates in preseason tilt

MANCHESTER 5, PORTLAND 2
David Meckler scored a goal and an assist to lead the Manchester Monarchs to a 5-2 win over the Portland Pirates in an American Hockey League pre-season game played tonight at the Conway Arena in Nashua, NH.

Bud Holloway, Justin Azevedo, Thomas Hickey and Corey Elkins also scored for the Monarchs while Andrew Campbell collected two assists.

Luke Adam and Mark Mancari replied for the Pirates.

Manchester jumped out quickly and posted a 2-0 advantage at the end of one on goals by Meckler and Holloway. They added to the advantage with three goals in the opening half of the second period (Hickey, Azevedo and Elkins did the damage) to up the count to 5-0 after two.

Adam and Mancari, on the power play, got the Pirates on the board in the third to complete the scoring.

Monarchs starting goaltender Jeff Zatkoff stopped all 20 shots he faced in 29:28 of action before giving way to Martin Jones, who finished with 12 saves on 14 shots.

David Leggio started in net for Portland and allowed five goals before being replaced midway through the second period by Alex Petizian. Petizian, a training camp invite, did not allow a goal in the final 30:25.

This contest brought the AHL’s preseason slate to a close. The league’s 75th regular season will kick off on Friday with six games.