The Lake Erie Monsters opened the 2016 AHL playoffs by heading to Rockford, Illinois. Why on the road? Being the higher seed, the Monsters had the right to select which games to play at home and it appears the venue didn’t matter in the series anyways.
Starting off in game one, Sonny Milano opened the scoring when he skated in and – to the shock of maybe one person sitting in section 204 – he fired a backhand that hit the post and then bounced off a Rockford player into the net to make it 1-0. Late in the first, the Monsters entered the zone with speed and Michael Chaput passed to Alex Broadhurst who found Zach Werenski at just above the goal line. Werenski had an almost empty net to shoot into to and he quickly made it 2-0 Monsters. The Monsters kept their foot on the gas in the second when, on the power play, Broadhurst bounced the puck off the end wall sending it right to Dean Kukan who blasted a shot to make it 3-0. Midway through the third, again on the power play, after a good bit of puck movement Kukan kept the puck in at the blueline before skating around a diving Hog defender and finding Broadhurst in about the same spot Werenski scored from to make it 4-0. The Hogs scored two third period goals before Trent Vogelhuber scored an empty net goal to seal the 5-2 game one victory. In the win, Joonas Korpisalo made 28 saves in the victory.
Game two started with the Monsters falling behind 1-0 5:45 into the game off a Ryan Hartman goal and that lead lasted all of the rest of the first period and 34 seconds. Early in the second period, out of a board battle, Anderson got the puck and fired a backhand that was stopped by a Hogs defender but somehow, the puck still ended up in the net with Josh getting credit for it. Three minutes later, The Great Dane, Oliver Bjorkstrand, struck when he deflected a Justin Falk point shot to make it 2-0. 20 second later, the Monsters hottest (and a bit unexpected) scorer of late got on the board when, off a face off, Dillon Heatherington fired a shot that went into the corner. Lukas Sedlak gathered and fired the puck to the slot but it went off an IceHog and into the net to make it 3-1 Monsters. Late in the third, off a face off, the puck went deep with Markus Hannikainen getting it and finding Anderson in front where he fired a backhand to make it 4-1. Later in the third, Josh completed his first pro hat trick when he fired a shot from just above his own faceoff dot with an empty net goal. This was the Monsters’ first playoff hat trick and first hat trick of the season. Korpisalo was solid again by stopping 24 of 25 in the win.
Game three saw the Monsters returning to home ice at the Q and of course, I headed up to take in the game. One thing that was different from regular season games at the Q is that for intros, the Monsters got to use the Qtv’s pyrotechnics.
As for the game, the Monsters struck midway through the first when TJ Tynan took a pass from Ryan Craig before finding Anderson in front who made it 1-0 with his fourth of the playoffs. That score makes Anderson the Monsters all time leader in playoff goals. In the second, Tynan forechecked hard along the boards and got the puck to Milano who found Werenski at the point to make it 2-0. Six minutes later, the Hogs struck when Jonathan Carlsson scored on a shot that Korpisalo got a piece of. Early in the third, Bjorkstrand would get on the board when, at 19 seconds into the period, Daniel Zaar gathered a loose puck and found Bjorkstrand who snapped a shot to make it 3-1. The Hogs scored in the third before the Zaar got on the scoresheet. Broadhurst engaged in a board battle before getting the puck to Jamie Sifers whose shot was stopped but Zaar picked up the rebound and fired a shot to make it 4-2 Monsters. Late in the third an odd two on one started with Vogelhuber and Craig taking off before Trent fired a shot that was stopped and Craig cleaned up the garbage as he usually does to make it 5-2 in a 5-3 Monsters game three win.
The victory earned the Monsters’ their first ever playoff series win. The Monsters almost repeated history too but they were a day off as 50 years ago, the day after game three, was the last time a Cleveland hockey team swept a playoff round (done against Springfield ironically).
Korpisalo made 21 saves and looked as fancy as possible during his postgame interview. Here also are Zach Werenski’s post game comments after game three.
To track playoff progress, the Monsters have the numbers 1-15 on the boards to represent the wins it takes to win the Calder Cup. Where NHL Teams, and probably most other sports teams, would make up a sticker or a graphic to X off the wins not the Monsters! To quote Jeff Foxworthy “say it with Krylon” as the Monsters just spraypaint over the numbers.
As for the next round, the Monsters will face off against a familiar foe as they take on the Grand Rapids Griffins. The teams faced off 12 times during the regular season with the Monsters going 5-4-3.
Let’s look at some series specific stats from those games:
- In the 12 games, only four Monsters dressed for all of them: Daniel Zaar, John Ramage, Ryan Craig and TJ Tynan.
- Tynan led in assists and points with 10 assists and 11 points total.
- Leading the Monsters in goal scoring through the series were Oliver Bjorkstand and Josh Anderson with four each.
- Anderson also led the Monsters in +/- at +6.
- Josh and Kerby Rychel led the team in penalty minutes with 33.
- As for the goalies:
–Anton Forsberg got the most playing time in the season series playing in six games going 2-2-2-0 with an .895 save percentage and a 3.10GAA.
–Joonas Korpisalo who will probably see most of the time in the playoffs played three games going 2-1-0-0 with a .909 save percentage and a 2.36GAA.
–Brad Thiessen played in four games going 1-0-2-0 with a .922 save percentage and a 2.39GAA.
Round two gets underway with two games in Cleveland. Game one is at 7 p.m. on May 5th and game two on May 7th at noon.
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