Nashua's Gavin Asimakopulos, left, jousts with Manchester's Ty Adams during Saturday's game at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – They made progress, but of course they would have rather gotten the win.

But the Nashua High School North-South Knights will take what they can get, as they battled but suffered their second one-goal loss to start the year, 3-2 at the hands of the Manchester Kings Saturday at Conway Arena.

“I think it’s just about getting a system a little bit more in place,” Knights co-coach Chris Zarlenga said. “From Wednesday to today was night and day. I truly think we’re a different hockey team than we were a couple of days ago.”

This time the Knights were the team chasing the lead, which they never reached. They were down 1-0 after one period and 3-1 after two before closing the gap with just under two minutes remaining.

Manchester’s Tyler Cantin had a pair of power play goals in the second period, and those were the difference in the game, coming at 3:45 and 12:11.

“Yeah, two stupid penalties,” Zarlenga said. “It’s stuff that shouldn’t happen, it’s inexcusable. If we just clean stuff up, it’s a whole different game. We could easily be 2-0.”

“The power play’s been pretty good for me all year,” Baker said. “I was happy with it tonight.”

Manchester got a goal in the first period on speedster Frank Tessier’s breakaway goal just 1:27 in as he beat Knights goalie Brendon Reudt von Collenberg (20 saves) five-hole.

“He’s our workhorse, he’s a kid we rely on to do everything,” Kings coach Jeremy Baker said. “Power play, penalty kill, carry the puck. If he’s on his game, it makes us a dangerous team.”

“The second we had a mental lapse, they found him,” Zarlenga said of Tessier, who the Knights otherwise kept in check.

Down 2-0, the Knights got on the board with a power play goal of their own, Connor Prunier’s perfectly placed wrister that found the one opening Kings goaltender Cam Roberge (18 saves) allowed, upper short side.

Down 3-1, the Knights made it a one-goal game with 1:44 left on Tommy Dratch’s goal off a perfect centering pass from Prunier. Nashua put pressure on Roberge late, but came up empty.

Still, the compete level the first two games is what the coaching staff has liked and they’ll try to take that with them back to Sullivan Arena on Monday night vs.Goffstown.

“In all reality, it’s hard not to be happy about that game” Zarlenga said. “Our message is we’re upset we lost, but we’re happy about the way we played. The wins are going to come, it’s guaranteed.”