Monarchs Drop CCF Game 3, Andrew Bodnarchuk Comments

The Manchester Monarchs lost Game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals by a score of 3-2 to the Utica Comets. After the game, Andrew Bodnarchuk caught up with Mayor’s Manor.

On the Game 3 loss:

“Tough loss, it is always tough losing. But I thought we got our feet under us in the first ten minutes or so we put together a pretty good performance. They’re a really good team and second in the league. We want to think we can sweep a team, we want to win every game but realistically these guys are a good team. They’re going to win a game, but it’s how we bounce back. They played out of their minds throughout the game and it is a tough building for a lot of these guys to get used to. But I think we know what to expect on Friday. We’ll regroup tomorrow and prepare ourselves for the game.”

On the veterans picking up the slack after losing Jeff Schultz, Brian O’Neill and J.F. Berube:

“Losing Schultzy hurt us. But we’ve seen [Kevin] Raine come in and play solid for us. Guys in our locker room have stepped up and grabbed more minutes. There are cases we’re going to have to see and evaluate what happens. There is some opportunity here for some guys to step up and play roles they haven’t seen as much. But we have a group full of guys that are more than capable of stepping up. Regardless of what happens, I have no idea what the situation is with those guys, hopefully it isn’t too serious. Tomorrow is going to be an evaluation day and look at the game today and prepare for Friday.”

On losing the league MVP and the AHL leader in Wins:

“Those are two guys that you don’t want to lose. We don’t want to lose anyone on our roster. Everyone is very capable of playing and playing their roles. No matter who it is that goes out, someone is going to have to step up. We lost them for the remainder of this game. But we’re going to have to evaluate tomorrow and see where we’re at. But moving forward, there might be an opportunity for guys to step up. At the same time, we’re not writing off those guys.”

On if this is what he expected for the first game in Utica:

“Yeah absolutely. For Utica, they probably came into Manchester hoping to get a split. We stopped them from doing that. Then they come back to their home soil down two. I know if I was in Utica’s locker room I would be talking about taking advantage of home ice. They came out exactly how we expected them to. Maybe a little bit more of a push than we expected. Everyone knew this was going to be an exciting place to play. But it maybe took a little bit longer than we’d like for guys to settle in. After the ten minutes or so of the first period we settled in nicely and got some good flow going. But we’re going to have to build off that and prepare for Friday now and put this one behind us.”

On any improvements the team needs to make:

“I’m not going to sell all our trades, but we’re definitely going to look at some video. I’m sure there are areas all around the ice that we can clean up. I don’t think you saw the best game out of us. We had flashes of Monarch hockey, but altogether I think there are a few situations where we can clean up our game. That is something we’re going to have to break down and look at on video.”

MORE GAME 3 COVERAGE:

CCF Game 3: Patrik Bartosak Quotes

ANALYSIS: Injuries Mount, Monarchs Lose Game 3 In Utica

CCF Game 3, Mike Stothers Amazing Postgame Quotes

Follow @AndyTonge1