All right folks, time for a quick AHL prospects recap! It was a busy week in Cleveland or at least on the Monsters road trip, with four games going on and unfortunately, none of them went too well for the Monsters.
The Monsters are in the midst of a season long seven game road trip and started off against a familiar foe, the Iowa Wild. This was the fifth time the teams faced off with the teams having split the first four. The Wild took a 2-0 lead before Blake Siebenaler got the Monsters on the board. Interestingly, Siebenaler was dressed as a forward in this game along with fellow rookie dman Jacob Graves and Joe Devin to make up the fourth line. In the second, Blake redirected a Marc-Andre Bergeron to make it 2-1. In the third, the Wild added another goal before Alex Petan scored his second goal of the season. The Wild added an empty net goal to make it 4-2 with Brad Thiessen taking the loss.
After that it was off to Chicago for a quick game with the Wolves. The Monsters opened the scoring when Petan intercepted a clearing attempt and skated in before passing to Markus Hannikainen who scored to make it 1-0 with his 12th of the season. After two Wolves goals, TJ Tynan scored a rare goal (for TJ at least) when he entered the zone and fired a shot from just above the circle. Phoenix Copley stopped the puck but it appeared to bounce off a teammate and go in to tie the game at two. The tie lasted late into the third but the Wolves scored two third period goals to hand the Monsters a 4-2 loss. Joonas Korpisalo made 20 saves in the loss.
Up next it was off to Charlotte for a pair against the Checkers at the Bojangles’ Coliseum (that’s pure North Carolina right there). The game was a back and forth affair with Devin and Bergeron scoring before Ryan Craig gave the Monsters a 3-2 lead early in the third. A few minutes later, Jordan Maletta intercepted a pass just before the center red line and skated into the zone. After gaining possession, he fired a shot from just over the blueline that made it past the Checkers’ goalie to make it 4-2 Monsters. But the Checkers scored three straight to send the Monsters back to the hotel with a 5-4 overtime loss. Anton Forsberg stopped 28 of 33.
The rematch was even uglier. The Checkers roared out to a 5-0 lead before the Monsters got on the board. It’s a little hard to tell from the highlights, but Maletta got credit for the goal. It’s worth noting that the Checkers announcer thinks the puck went in off a Charlotte player. The Checkers add another goal and sent the Monsters home as losers of their last four. Thiessen started the game but after stopping only seven of 11, Forsberg took over and stopped 19 of 21 in relief.
There you have it folks, a busy week for the Monsters. We’ll be back next week with a recap along with another CBJprospects road trip as I’ll be heading to Flint to see Kole Sherwood and the Firebirds take on Oshawa.
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