The Lake Erie Monsters took on the Grand Rapids Griffins at Quicken Loans Arena for the second time in as many days. They were coming off a 4-1 loss just twenty-four hours earlier, but tonight they had additional support on their side.
In the promotion of the year, the Monsters brought in the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. A crowd of 11,000-plus fans was on hand to witness “Beauty and the Beast,” the beast of course, being the Monsters.
Lake Erie didn’t waste any time, scoring a power play goal just 1:48 into the contest. After a horrible special teams performance the prior evening, this was exactly what the Monsters needed to break out of their funk. Lundmark scored the goal with assists by Vernace and Boychuk. Vernace, the league leader in saves, would add another later in the contest, upping his team leading assist total to 20 on the season.
The Griffins evened the scoring at 1-1 midway through the second on a goal from McGrath, and assists to Ritola and Hartigan.
Lake Erie went back up by one prior to the second period ending on a rebound cleaned up by Healey. Vernace and Lundmark were credited with the assists on this particular tally.
Grand Rapids lived up to their hometown name as early in the third they picked up a quick goal, knotting the score at 2-2 on a goal and assist for Cullen and Helm respectively. Cullen has really been a thorn in the Monsters' side all season.
The Monsters were not going to let this one slip away, however.
The previous evening, Grand Rapids was all over Lake Erie, registering short-handed chance after chance. Tonight, the Monsters got a bit of revenge as Smith netted a great short-handed scoring chance with less than five minutes left in the game to give the Monsters a 3-2 lead.
Mike Wall came up huge save in the third for the Monsters. A backdoor pass across the slot looked to be a certain goal, but Wall slid all the way across the net and gloved the shot. The crowd’s groans changed to cheers immediately on the best save of the night. His evening consisted of blocking shot after shot in this forty-save evening.
The Monsters take on the Hershey Bears Thursday evening in the Bears only visit to Quicken Loans Arena this year.
Hershey is second in the standings in their respective division and it only seems appropriate that a team sponsored by the company that makes kisses will show up on Valentine’s Day.
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders put on a great show during both intermissions, but the best part of the evening was seeing them overshadowed by the Monsters and Griffins playing some great hockey in the coolest game on earth.
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