Greetings, all! We’re getting to the point in the season when the recaps get shorter and shorter. After this week, we’ll only have updates on the Monsters weekly as everyone except them is in the playoffs and I wait until the end of the round for their updates. So watch for those to pop up as series end.
Starting off in Cleveland as we always do, it was a big weekend for the Monsters’ playoff hopes as they took part in a three-in-three against the two teams ahead of them in the standings. Thursday night, the Rockford IceHogs came to town for a back to back. The Monsters opened the scoring even as most fans were still sitting down from the national anthem. Off the draw, Dillon Heatherington chipped the puck ahead and it went airborne allowing Josh Anderson to fire a shot that was tipped by Lukas Sedlak for his third goal in three games. The goal eight seconds into the first is a new Monsters record. 1:11 later, the Hogs tied it on Jonathan Carlsson’s first goal of the season. In the second, Markus Hannikainen took a pass from Trent Vogelhuber and split the defense while fighting off a stick check before scoring his seventh of the season. Just over four minutes later, Sonny Milano got the puck at his own blueline and skated all the way in before firing a shot from the dot to make it 3-1. In the third, Milano struck again when he skated in on a three on two with TJ Tynan and Kerby Rychel. Sonny took a rink wide pass from Rychel and finished with the goal before falling on the IceHogs goalie to make it 4-1 in a 4-2 Monsters win. Anton Forsberg made 23 saves in his 19th win of the season.
Friday night it was “Sonny Milano bobble head night” so of course I made my way up I-71 for the rematch. The Hogs took an early lead before Steve Eminger tied the game just under five minutes later. Early in the second, Michael Chaput who spent this weekend yo-yoing between Cleveland and Columbus, gathered a loose puck off a mishandling by the Hogs goaltender to make it 2-1. Six minutes later, the Zaar would strike when Daniel Zaar picked up a rebound for his 18th of the season. Later in the second, Sedlak kept his hot streak alive with his first of the game when he took a Hannikainen pass in the slot and hammered it past Drew McIntyre. In the third with the Hogs on the power play, it was Sedlak again who skated past three defenders before putting the puck past Mac Carruth who took over in net at the start of the third. Forsberg made 30 saves for his 20th win of the season giving him back to back 20 win seasons in the AHL. Overall, the game was a rough affair with Lake Erie’s Brett Gallant and Rockford’s P-C Labrie both picking up 27 penalty minutes in the game.
Saturday it was off to Grand Rapids where the Griffins were riding a seven game home winning streak. But this night the action was all Monsters. Zaar opened the scoring when he took a cross rink pass from Alex Broadhurst for his team leading 19th of the season. 1:01 later, Milano scored his third of the weekend when he tipped a Tynan shot to make it 2-0. Early in the second, Tynan then skated in and found Anderson who fired a shot Sedlak picking up the rebound for his fourth goal of the weekend and seventh of the month. Just over a minute later, Milano showed off his skill when he started at the side wall, stickhandled and passed to Jamie Sifers. Sifers then passed back to Sonny who skated in and fired a shot through a Ryan Craig screen to make it 4-0 and end Jared Coreau’s night in goal. The Monsters allowed a late goal in each of the the second and third periods before Sifers scored an empty net goal from his own goal line to make it 5-2. Brad Thiessen made 36 saves in the win.
In the Monsters three wins, Sedlak led the charge by scoring five goals while Anderson was a close second with five assists. Sonny Milano scored four goals and Zaar notched two goals and two assists. Next week’s pair of games against Chicago should help the playoff push as the Wolves are 16 points behind the Monsters.
Zach Werenski-Michigan (Big 10)
Season Stats 36GP 11-24-35 +5 20PIM
This week the Wolverines were off to Cincinnati for the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional where they opened play against Notre Dame in the 2-3 seed matchup. The Irish got out to a 2-1 lead before Zach got in on the action. Midway through the third, Werenski gathered a loose puck and chipped it in. A Michigan teammate gathered it and found Nicholas Boka who shot and missed but Zach kept the puck in at the blueline and passed to Boo Nieves. After passing, Zach made a beeline to the slot and fired a bullet off a pass from Nieves to make it 2-2. When it came down to the deciding goal, after being silent all game the CCM line (freshman Kyle Connor, and juniors JT Compher and Tyler Motte) won the game in overtime.
In the regional final against North Dakota, Michigan faced a physical affair where the score stayed close until the Fighting Hawks opened the floodgates in the third. Zach went pointless in the loss. He was credited with one in-arena but it appears it was taken away postgame. In the regional tournament, Zach was named to the All-Region Team. Now begins “Werenski Watch.” The way people are making it sound there is a lot of speculation that Werenski may sign with the Blue Jackets and forego his remaining two years of college play. We should have an update/resolution by our next update.
There you have it folks another week in well…Ohio. Hopefully soon we can start talking about prospect playoff updates.
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