After closing out their series against Grand Rapids, the Monsters flew in style as the Jackets allowed the team to use Blue Jackets Air to fly out to Ontario, California for the AHL Western Conference Finals.
Starting in game one, after a scoreless first, it was quite an eventful second period. The Reign opened the scoring when Sean Backman notched his first of the playoffs. Just under three minutes later, Lukas Sedlak got the Monsters on the board when Oliver Bjorkstrand entered the zone and passed to Markus Hannikainen who found a trailing Sedlak. The Czech fired from just above the circle to tie it. 1:13 later, Josh Anderson gave the Monsters a 2-1 lead when he grabbed a loose puck out of chaos in front and pounded it in on the second or third attempt. 1:23 later, Lake Erie struck again when, off a faceoff win by Trent Vogelhuber, Sonny Milano got the puck and fired allowing Ryan Craig to gather the rebound and score to make it 3-1. This was the fifth time all season (223 periods) and only the second time at home the Reign have allowed three goals in one period. After two Reign goals in the third to tie it up, Alex Broadhurst scored to give the Monsters the final lead of the night just 19 seconds after the second Reign goal. Zach Werenski fired a pass through a Reign player’s legs to find Broadhurst in front and make it 4-3. Anton Forsberg made 27 saves in the game one victory.
The next night in game two, the Monsters opened the scoring when Hannikainen started the sequence near the blueline. Then, with a defender all over him, he dropped a pass to Craig who was coming off the bench due to a delayed penalty. Craig skated in and fired a shot, Markus picked up the rebound and scored his first of the playoffs. Just 12 seconds later, Markus gathered a loose puck and sprung Sedlak on a two on one with Bjorkstrand. Ultimately, Lukas kept it and fired a shot from the circle to make it 2-0.
In more “the Reign hadn’t done that much but the Monsters just did it” stats, the Reign had allowed just two first period goals all playoffs. Early in the second, Dean Kukan passed to Steve Eminger who fired a shot. That was stopped but TJ Tynan jumped on the rebound and shot into an almost empty net to make it 3-0 Monsters. The Reign did score two third period goals including one by Paul “BizNasty” Bissonnette (I don’t believe it either). Forsberg made 27 saves in the win, here are his postgame comments.
More stat fun – seven of the Monsters last eight games had been one goals games and the team has gone 6-1 in those. The game two victory also gave the Monsters a 6-1 record on the road in the playoffs. The seven goals Peter Budaj allowed in games one and two were the most he allowed in back to back games this season.
Another fun outcome of the two games out west? Before we head back East the Jackets got out the old Behind the Battle Cameras and followed the Monsters around during games one and two.
Back in Cleveland, the Monsters rolled all over the Reign. Starting off in the first, Bjorkstrand skated into the zone and absorbed a hit from two Reign defenders while keeping control of the puck and then firing a backhand to make it 1-0. 1:50 later, Vogelhuber won a board battle and sent a pass out to Eminger who fired a shot that was deflected by Milano to make it 2-0. A few minutes later, Kerby Rychel sprung Josh Anderson on a breakaway and Josh was off to the races firing a shot in the circles to make it 3-0. Late in the second, Bjorkstrand entered the zone and fired a shot that was stopped. Sedlak got the first two cracks at the resulting rebounds but it was Hannikainen who finished and basically ended Budaj’s night. Budaj finished the second but Michael Houser played in the third and stopped all six shots he faced. This was only the second time in 72 starts that Budaj didn’t finish a game. Forsberg made 26 saves in his first career and Lake Erie’s first ever playoff shutout.
For those of you scoring at home, through 12 playoff games the Monsters had scored 44 goals against the AHL’s 10th, 6th and 1st ranked defenses in the regular season. Here are Josh Anderson and Anton Forsberg’s postgame comments.
As for game four, you bet your bippy I headed up to Cleveland for the game even if it was a school night and boy did the Monsters make me happy (and partly regret my decision – RIP sleep). Starting off in the first, Milano skated into the zone and fired a shot that Rychel gathered before finding Lukas in front for his seventh of the playoffs. After a scoreless second, the Reign scored a goal due to a miscommunication between Dillon Heatherington and Forsberg that allowed Joel Lowry to gather the loose puck and put it over Anton’s shoulder for his fourth of the playoffs. The game went to overtime and even watching multiple OT games on TV doesn’t prepare you for attending one live.
After one OT, the game was still undecided and a second extra period began. Forsberg was exceptional on a save in close. It was, in fact, so close that it’s hard to tell if a Reign player had his arms up in celebration or to avoid hitting Forsberg in the head. In the second OT, Anderson took a hard (and dirty, in my opinion) hit in the corner but Rychel got on the puck and took a shot that was stopped. The puck rebounded all the way to the blueline before a Dman gathered it to shoot, and miss. But Josh was there this time to collect the rubber and he promptly went beast mode by skating into the high slot with a defender all over him and firing a backhand in the high slot. That shot was stopped but who else but Sedlak scored what is, at least for now, the biggest goal in Monsters history – clinching the Monsters a spot in the Calder Cup Finals for the first time ever. Forsberg made 41 saves in the victory. Here are Sedlak, Rychel and Forsberg’s in arena comments after the game along with the spray painting of the boards. Postgame antics aside here are Lukas’ postgame comments.
I did find it odd that the Monsters didn’t get presented a trophy postgame like most teams when winning a conference championship but for those wondering, the Monsters claim the Robert W Clarke Trophy as Western Conference Champions.
Cleveland has a long history of AHL hockey even if this is the Monsters first final appearance. This Calder Cup Final will be the city’s first appearance since 1964. The Barons made 14 finals from 1939-1966 and won nine.
After the game, the Monsters got a bit of a break as the Eastern Conference Final which was also 3-0 with Hershey leading Toronto, ended up going a bit longer when the Marlies won game four to force game five which Hershey did win to close out the series.
So in the Calder Cup Final it is Lake Erie vs Hershey. This will be the fourth time Hershey and Cleveland have met in a AHL Final and Cleveland has won all three (1940,45,54). Lake Erie is the 10th different team to represent the West in the Final in the past 11 years with Texas being the only one to repeat. On the other side of the league, Hershey has played in five of the last 11 Cups and won three from 2006-2010.
Leading the way for the Bears is ex-Jacket Carter Camper who has 15 points in 17 games. The Bears also have this season’s winner of the Les Cunningham Award (MVP) in Chris Bourque who has 10 points in 17 games. In net, the Bears have Justin Peters who’s 11-5 with a 1.95 GAA and a .929 save percentage with 2 shutouts against Portland (1st Rd) and Wilkes-Barre (2nd Rd).
Quickly, in a nice gesture, the AHL is giving you the option to A pony up $65 to watch the AHL stream of the Finals which usually shows the scoreboard feed along with the home announcers or well you can do this and watch the stream for free…wait a minute that’s way cheaper! I’m gonna do that.
Well folks, it’s a little odd to be still talking CBJ prospects in June but here we are. I’ll be back with my CHL recap now that the Memorial Cup is over and you can sure as heck count on me heading to Cleveland for a game.
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