IN THE END, on the scoreboard the teams appeared closer than the four-game sweep that separated them.
The Providence Bruins came in as the best team in the American Hockey League and lived up to that billing, eliminating the Manchester Monarchs in the opening round of the Calder Cup playoffs. With one of the youngest teams in the league, the Monarchs had earned the fewest points of all the AHL playoff teams and had made an admirable run to get in.
Although Providence won four straight in the series, the Bruins only beat the Monarchs by a goal in three overtime games. To think that a bounce here or a bounce there, a call here or a no-call there and the Monarchs, going into this weekend for Games 5 and 6 in Providence, might have been leading this Atlantic Division semifinal series, 3-1. The Bruins might have been on the brink of elimination.
Monarchs were too young, too flawed (Union Leader) 
