Monsters Get Hog Tied Again

After outplaying the Rockford Icehogs but recording a disappointing loss the night before, the Lake Erie Monsters butted heads with Rockford again at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland Ohio. 

The first period started out all Rockford, as Lake Erie gave up numerous shots within their own zone while registering little or nothing of their own.  At 12:05, the Monsters' Jeff Jillson got called for hooking. The five-on-four yielded more scoring chances for Rockford, with Lake Erie goalie Tyler Weiman holding the Monsters with great saves. 

With eighteen seconds left in the Icehog power play, Rockford surrendered their one man advantage, sending #21 Mike Blinden to the box for holding.  After Lake Erie returned to full strength, the Monsters scored the first goal of the evening on a wrister from #25 Chris Stewart.  Stewart faked the slapshot, taking the defender out of position, and went low to the stick side of  Corey Crawford.  Assists were registered by # 18 Jeff Jillson and #6 Mike Vernace. 

Less than a minute later, the Monsters went on the power play again.  David Jones scored, assisted by #6 Mike Vernace and #10 Wyatt Smith.  The Icehogs did themselves no favors, taking yet another penalty, this time on #17 Bryan Bickell with one minute left in the period. 

While the Monsters didn’t score to end the period, they had a lot of positives going into the locker room.  The highlights included the offense generated by David Jones, Wyatt Smith, and assists by defenseman Mike Vernace.  Also, net minder Tyler Weiman pulled off his share of Houdini’s, stopping the puck time and time again. 

The Monsters were, as usual, out shot in first period, this time 15-9.  On the detriment end, watching #39 Martin St. Pierre stand behind the net and quarterback the Icehogs to multiple scoring opportunities made Monsters fans pray to Lake Erie that Weiman could keep up his outstanding goaltending performance.

The second period opened with Lake Erie having one minute left on the power play.  The Icehogs killed that one off without a shot. 

When they returned to even strength, Rockford laid on some heavy pressure.  To turn up the heat, they started pinching in on offense, giving up three odd-man rushes.  It seemed like if Lake Erie sat back and waited for these chances, they would probably end up capitalizing.  Taking a penalty negated that advantage however, as #32 Codey Burki got sent to the box for hooking. 

The Monsters' penalty killers held, demonstrating resilience on both ends of the power play.  It was a good thing, because #18 Jeff Jillson returned to the box for a high stick, giving Rockford another chance at reducing the deficit.  This penalty was a bad one—a stick to the face drawing blood, a.k.a. a five minute major.

# 25 Cam Barker took a slapshot from the left point that was routine for Weiman, since there wasn’t any traffic in the net.  It looked like Rockford learned from that one, as they parked #12 Jack Skille right in front of Weiman and he immediately scored. Richmond and Ryan notched assists. 

Rockford still had three plus minutes on the five-minute major—Skille’s slapshot from the point had traffic.  They weren’t the only ones learning though, as Weiman peered around Bouwer and stopped that attempt.  With twenty nine seconds to go, #4 Mitch Love took a boarding call, giving Rockford a five on three.  They rung the post once, then scored just as Jillson came out of the box. 

That brought Lake Erie back to full strength, and it also evened the score.  This was a rerun of the prior day, where the Monsters went up 2-0 only to see the game evened in the second.

#39 Martin St Pierre got two minutes for a high stick, hitting Boychuk in the face.  Why he didn’t get five is beyond me.  The Monsters' David Jones scored almost immediately, with an assist by #2 Ray Macias.

#10 Kris Versteeg got called for a slashing.  The penalty went without incident.

With both teams back at full strength, and 2.4 seconds remaining in the period, both squads took multiple penalties in the different scrums going on all over the ice.  The bottom line was Lake Erie came out on the short end by a two minute minor.  Total shots favored Rockford 30-17 through two.

Opening up the third, Rockford #23 Adam Hobson went to the box for two minutes for high sticking on #10 Wyatt Smith, and the Monsters went on the power play. 

While that went without incident, #25 Cam Barker was called for hooking. 28 seconds later, #10 Chris Versteeb went to the box for holding, giving the Monsters a minute and a half of five-on-three. 

For all the good work they did during the evening on the power play, the five-on-three was not at all productive, and they came away empty handed on both penalties.

A huge momentum swing came close, as they earned a penalty shot because the Lake Erie Monsters fell on the puck in the crease.  Weiman stoned the shot, preserving the lead.  #3 Johnny Boychuck created havok all over the front line of Rockford late in the game, ringing up a couple of major hits on an offensive surge by the Icehogs, the last hit coming right in front of the net as Weiman went down. 

Play was stopped for a minute as Weiman recovered.  Apparently worse for wear, the IceHogs evened up the score with 2:42 remaining, as Mike Blunden poked it home on a dribbler to the left of a still shaken Weiman.

The game went to overtime, with the Monsters losing 4-3 on a trickler through the legs of Weiman.

The Monsters came up short in both games they should have won.  Third star of the game goes to Monsters # 6 Mike Vernace, loggin two assists. Second star goes to #23 David Jones, scoring two goals. The first star and game winning goal scorer was #24 Preston Ryan. 

The game was “Women in Heels” night at the arena, and the ladies in attendance won some pretty cool prize packages as a result of attending.