Lake Erie Monsters Lose in OT

The Monsters hadn’t been home for quite a while, and were quite a different looking team when they took to the ice at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.  

First and foremost, Mark Rycroft—the former captain of the Lake Erie Monsters—was on the ice, but in a Syracuse Crunch jersey.  

Rycroft was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets (Syracuse’s parent club) for defenseman Darcy Campbell and forward Philippe Dupuis. 

Dupuis didn’t even have is name etched on the back of his jersey until the beginning of the second period—that’s how quickly this trade went down prior to the two teams suiting up. 

While Rycroft had been nursing a sore back for a few weeks and had not played recently, Lake Erie will miss his energy and leadership.  He was on ice for the Crunch on this particular evening. 

Additionally, David Jones and T.J. Hensick both headed back to the Colorado Avalanche; both players' returns were a foregone conclusion. 

The Monsters, hungry for a win, and hoping to edge up in the standings on Syracuse, managed to swing one point in the tie, but lost in overtime, 2-1.

The first period was somewhat ho-hum, as both teams came out flat.  While the Monsters enjoyed a four-minute power play edge in the first frame, they trailed where it counted most—the scoreboard. 

On the Crunch's only power play of the first period, Alexandre Picard scored with his back to the net from his knees, slamming home his own rebound with just over three minutes left in the first.  Duvia Westcott and Gilbert Brule registered assists. 

Less than five minutes into the second period, the Monsters evened the score on a sweet move by Wyatt Smith.  He came in from left side, and showed the puck to goalie Adam Munro from about six feet away. Smith then pulled the puck back, waited for the goalie to go down, skated in front of the crease, and wrapped it around the left foot of Syracuse netminder.  An assist was registered by Jamie Lundmark. 

Lundmark and Smith looked good on the same line, with one or the other almost always creating traffic in front of the net.  Smith had only been back two games after recovering from a knee injury.   Unfortunately, that broke up the Lundmark-Kelly tandem that had been so lethal as of late.  

Deep into the second, in an inexplicably dunderhead move, the Crunch had removed netminder Adam Munro because of a delayed penalty on Chris Stewart of the Monsters.  Syracuse threw the puck back to the non-existent goalie, just missing scoring an own goal.  Too bad the defenseman didn’t have better aim! 

The Monsters took another penalty on Mark McCutcheon, putting the Crunch on a five-on-three for well over a minute. But thirty seconds later Knopka gave up the two-man advantage by taking a hook, making it a Syracuse four-on-three. 

With the penalties racking up, there was no way this period wasn’t going to end in confrontation. Sure enough, Dale Purinton grabbed a five-minute penalty for spearing, and a game misconduct just as the period ended.

The third period opened with a Monster of a penalty kill by Lake Erie; both teams continued to show a lack of energy.  It was obvious this one was going to end in a tie, as the third period only generated six shots by each team.

At the end of regulation it was 1-1.  Denisov was a one man wrecking crew for the Monsters, laying big hit after big hit on the Crunch forwards.  The hits, though, did not translate into victory for the Monsters, when a poor turnover in the neutral zone opened up the winning scoring opportunity. 

Kinocka of the Crunch took it right in front of the crease on a beautiful between-the-legs maneuver, then dumped the puck to Lindstrom, who went high for the win. 

Lake Erie wasted a huge opportunity to pick up a point on a team they really need to catch if they want any chance of securing a playoff berth come April.'

Third star of the game - Lake Erie Monsters, Tyler Weiman

Second star of the game - Syracuse Crunch, Adam Monroe

First Star of the game -  Syracuse Crunch, Jokim Lindstom