Game 3 of the best-of-five series will be played Thursday night.
Springfield's Ryan Craig, left, and David Savard flank Manchester goalie Martin Jones during a 5-on-3 power play Sunday in Game 2 of the Calder Cup quarterfinals at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. Two home victories for the Springfield Falcons, both in overtime. That shows how tough the playoff grind can be in the American Hockey League.
And now comes Game 3 of their best-of-five first-round series with the Manchester Monarchs. It will be played Thursday night at Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena. Mark it down as another tough one as the Falcons attempt to sweep.
“We expect a battle, because the hardest games to win are those to close out a series,” said Falcons first-year coach Brad Larsen, himself a veteran of playoff action in both the NHL and AHL.
“Manchester will be playing with a lot of intensity. We’ll have to make sure we match that intensity,” he said.
For years, Falcons teams had a terrible time trying to win in Manchester. That changed this season, when the Springfield club prevailed 5-4, 3-2 and 7-5 in its three visits to Verizon Wireless Arena. Falcons scoring leader Jonathan Audy-Marchessault had the team’s only hat trick in the 7-5 game on Jan. 15.
“We know what we did there before, but that doesn’t mean anything now, in the playoffs,” Falcons captain Ryan Craig said.
“That’s a desperate team facing us. They’re strong and skilled from the goaltender on out. We did a good job of holding serve, so to speak, in the first two games at home. We did it with a solid effort, and now we have to try to continue that.”
Since winning 2-1 and 3-2 at home, the Falcons have gotten stronger in the manpower department. This time against the Monarchs, they will get a boost from Ryan Johansen at center and Dalton Prout on defense, who were sent back to the Falcons after taking part in a searing stretch drive by Springfield’s parent club, the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus missed a playoff spot by a tiebreaker with Minnesota, but over the last month was the hottest team in the NHL.
Johansen and Prout were with the Falcons when the team made its strong start. After Johansen was promoted to the NHL on Jan. 5 and Prout on March 1, the Falcons maintained their consistent play and wound up winning the Northeast Division title by 20 points.
The Monarchs know they’ll have to stay out of the penalty box if they expect to remain alive in this series. In Sunday’s Game 2, they were whistled for nine penalties. The Falcons scored only one power-play goal, but it was a critical one by David Savard, as it tied the game 2-2 in the third period.
“Our team battled extremely hard and deserved a better fate,” Monarchs coach Mark Morris told the Manchester Union-Leader after Sunday’s game.
“The ice was tilted toward the penalty box and we endured lots and lots of shorthanded situations. This one is a tough pill to swallow. We thoroughly outplayed them in the overtime, outshooting them and outchancing them. It’s hard to find fault in our effort, but we’ll need to find some scoring touch and stay out of the box.”
The Falcons practiced at the MassMutual Center on Wednesday morning, had lunch and then boarded a bus for Manchester.
If the Monarchs force Game 4, it would be played Saturday night in Manchester. If Game 5 is necessary, the series would switch back to the MassMutual Center on Sunday, with game time at 4 p.m.