The Manchester Monarchs defeated the host Springfield Falcons 2-1 in American Hockey League action Saturday night.

Manchester improved to 10-7-3 while Springfield fell to 11-4-4.

The Monarchs will host Portland today at 3 p.m. at Verizon Wireless Arena in another VIP Cup series game.

Manchester fell behind 1-0 in the first but came back with a pair of goals in that period and then made it stand up 24 hours after squandering a 3-0 third period lead at home in an eventual 5-4 loss Friday.

Both teams went with backup goaltenders in the game and both turned in big efforts. Manchester's Peter Mannino made 19 saves to pick up his third win of the season. Paul Dainton made 27 stops for Springfield.

The Falcons took a 1-0 lead at 11:13 of the first period on a power-play goal from Cam Atkinson. Mannino made two saves but Atkinson was able to pop the third try in.

The Monarchs tied the game at 13:40 on Dwight King's second tally of the season. Dainton made the save on a Thomas Hickey shot, but King was there to bang the rebound in.

Manchester went ahead 2-1 at 15:50 of the first on a Linden Vey goal. Rookie Tanner Pearson set up the goal with a pass to Vey in the slot.

David Meckler nearly gave the Monarchs a two-goal lead, breaking away shorthanded in the final seconds of the first period before firing a shot wide of the net.

The second period played out scoreless, but Manchester notched another near-miss again late in the frame.