MANCHESTER, N.H. — The Portland Pirates (0-1) dropped the opening game of the Calder Cup playoffs to the Manchester Monarchs (1-0) by a score of 5-2 on Thursday night at the Verizon Wireless Arena.

It was the first game of the best-of-five series against the Monarchs. Game two is slated for Saturday at 7 p.m., with the series shifting to Portland on Sunday.

The game started out at a fast and furious pace with Jordan Weal potting the Monarch’s first goal just 2:07 into the first period. Weal’s goal came with assists from Sean Backman and Kevin Raine.

Henrik Samuelsson evened the score for the Pirates about a minute later with a power play goal at 3: 11, assisted by Brendan Shinnimin and Patrick McNeill.

But, Brian O’Neill scored the go-ahead goal midway through the first at 10:27, assisted by Michael Mersch and Andrew Bodnarchuk. Weal and O’Neill continued their hot streak, each netting another goal in the second frame. Weal got his second at 11:27, a power-play goal, assisted Vincent LoVerde and Zach O’Brien. O’Neill made the score 4-1 for the Monarchs at 17:30, assisted by LoVerde and Nick Shore.

Manchester sealed its win when LoVerde netted one of his own, an empty-net shorthanded goal at 17:56 in the third.

The Pirates added one more to make it 5-2 when Jordan Szwarz scored at 19:08, assisted by Laurent Dauphin and Philip Samuelsson.