The Lake Erie Monsters advanced to the AHL Central Division Final against the Grand Rapids Griffins after sweeping the Rockford IceHogs in round two of the AHL playoffs and it was a story that took a bit longer than many thought early on to get told. So let’s take a look at the series that was.
Starting off in Cleveland for game one, after a scoreless first, Eric Tangradi got the Griffins on the board early in the second. Lukas Sedlak kept his late season hot streak alive when he picked up the rebound of a Jamie Sifers shot to tie it at one. Exactly seven minutes later, Alex Broadhurst scored his second of the playoffs with a little help from Griffins’ goalie Tom McCollum who slid the puck into the net out of a scramble in front. Just a few minutes later, the Griffins scored to tie it and end all the regulation scoring for the game – the game headed into overtime. In extra innings, the Griffins gave the Monsters a scare when just over a minute into OT, the Griffins scored but the goal was called back due to goalie interference. Later in OT, with the Monsters on the power play, Dean Kukan got the puck at the point and passed to Broadhurst who sent a crossrink pass to Oliver Bjorkstrand. Ollie promptly hammered a one timer for the game winner and his third of the playoffs. Joonas Korpisalo made 22 saves in the 3-2 overtime win.
I headed up to the Q for game two, and the Monsters got on the board when Sonny Milano skated the length of the ice before chipping the puck to Kerby Rychel who fired a shot. Sonny then picked up the rebound to make it 1-0. Just under three minutes later, the Monsters struck again when, off a bang bang tic tac toe passing play, TJ Tynan found Steve Eminger just below the goal line so he could fire a shot / pass to McCollum who made it 2-0. The Monsters promptly went on to allow two goals – first, with only four seconds remaining in the first and then just 2:05 into the second to make it 2-2. The Griffins then added another goal before the Monsters’ captain started the comeback. Late in the third, Trent Vogelhuber took part in a board battle before finding Ryan Craig in front for the score. It almost seemed like the Griffins goalie didn’t even know he was standing there. Just over two and a half minutes later, the Zaar would strike. Sifers started the sequence when his shot was stopped and he passed to Craig who found Trent who then passed to Daniel Zaar. Zaar waited and fired for his second of the playoffs. The Monsters would hold on for the victory and head to Michigan with a 2-0 series lead. Korpisalo made 23 saves in the victory, here are Korpi’s postgame comments along with Captain Craig‘s.
When the series switched to Michigan it didn’t take the Monsters long to take the lead when, just 17 seconds into the game, Josh Anderson took advantage of a turnover and skated in and fired to make it 1-0. Midway through the second, Sedlak skated into the zone and dropped a pass to Bjorkstrand who sent a cross rink pass to Zach Werenski who fired a shot before McCollum could slide over to try and stop it. The Griffins added a late second period goal to make it 2-1. Korpisalo put on a clinic stopping 41 shots in the win including 22 in the first period.
Game Four is when the series got interesting. Starting off in the first Michael Chaput would open the scoring when he’d deflect a Daniel Zaar shot for his first of the playoffs, Tyler Bertuzzi would score just a tick under five minutes later to tie it. Just under a minute later Sonny Milano would score one of those goals where I just say “watch the highlights folks”. But this fun we get some extra fun as since the game was in Grand Rapids and that’s who’s feed AHL live picked up and well the Griffins announcers made it sound like it was pure luck where as Tony Brown gave it the respect the goal deserved(my favorite part is Ryan Craig’s reaction) along with ESPN’s John Buccigross. In the second Sedlak would strike again when he’d skate in and fire a shot from the face-off circle to make it 3-1. Just under five minutes later the Great Dane would strike when off a face-off Oliver would gather a loose puck a fire to make it 4-1 and end Tom McCollum’s night. That would also end the scoring for the Monsters but the Griffins would score four straight to give the Griffins there first win of the series. Korpisalo made 30 saves in the loss.
Game Five…what do I wanna say about game five…how about it never happened. The brief positive for the Monsters is the goal. The only score for the Monsters came when Werenski skated in and threw a backhand in front with Rychel bullrushing the goalie for his first of the playoffs. Then the game was all Griffins, or mostly Tyler Bertuzzi (comment withheld to keep this blog rated G) and Andreas Athanasiou. The two Griffins combined for five points including a hat trick by Beruzzi. Korpisalo stopped 25 of 30 before turning things over to Anton Forsberg who allowed a goal on the first shot he faced.
Game Six took the teams back to Grand Rapids and it didn’t go much better as the Griffins scored two in the first 2:16 before the Zaar struck while Justin Falk created havoc in front (don’t know why the Griffins play by play announcers were so surprised the Monsters put the biggest guy in the lineup in front of the net). The goal came when Daniel got the puck at the wall and skated out to the point before firing a bomb to make it 2-1. The Griffins scored early in the second to end Korpsialo’s night. In the second, Rychel took on Mitch Callahan in a fight and, as the theme was reinforced, it didn’t go well for Kerby. First off, he lost the fight and second, he got tossed for removing his elbow pads before the fight which earned him a 10 minute misconduct. Oddly enough, this woke up the Monsters starting with Michael Chaput when Zaar stole the puck and passed to Michael in front to make it 3-2. Early in the third, Sedlak scored another one when, off a faceoff, Sedlak passed to Anderson who get the puck to Werenski at the point. The defenseman’s shot was stopped but Sedlak picked the rebound for his fourth of the playoffs. Late in OT, it became the Zach Werenski show when he’d gathered a loose puck while fighting off three Griffins and fired a backhand before gathering the rebound and firing another backhand to clinch the Monsters their first trip to the AHL Conference Finals ever. Before we get to that, let’s play “whose call is better.” First, here’s the Grand Rapids call, and here are the highlights from the Lake Erie side of things. Korpisalo stopped six of nine in his time in net while Forsberg stopped all 23 shots he faced. Here are the entire highlights. Zach Werenski is currently tied for the most points by a U19 player in the AHL playoffs since Eldred Kobussen in 1944.
As for the Finals, the Monsters will face off against a team they’ve played…wait a minute they haven’t played yet. Yes, folks, after playing their first two opponents 20 times in the regular season the Monsters will face off against the Ontario Reign who are the Los Angeles Kings AHL affiliate and technically the defending AHL Champs as last season they were the Manchester Monarchs. Leading the Reign (who, if I can go jersey geek, in my opinion looked better in the ECHL) is Nic Dowd with eight points in nine games. The Reign’s strength is in net as Peter Budaj won this year’s Baz Bastian Award for most outstanding goaltender.
The @TheAHL full graphic for the Western Conference Finals. #ONTvsLE pic.twitter.com/SK3K3yfLFZ
— Jared Shafran (@ShafReign) May 19, 2016
The puck drops Saturday so stay tuned for updates.
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