CLEVELAND – The Monsters took on the Iowa Wild Thursday night in the first of a two home game series. The first period would start off with each team exchanging shots back and fourth for the first 10 minutes. Then at the 10:50 mark of the first period, the Monsters would find their first power play opportunity of the game thanks to a Zach Palmquist holding penalty.
And 12 seconds into said power play, Dean Kukan would set up T.J. Tynan for a mid distance slap shot, which would deflect off the pad of Iowa’s Leland Irving and eventually be cleaned up by Josh Anderson from the side of the crease for his 4th goal of the season to put the Monsters up 1-0 going into the 2nd period.
Just when it seemed as though we were going to see a scoreless second frame, Lake Eire’s John Ramage would score his first goal of the season with 4:28 left in the second period assisted by Trent Vogelhuber to put the Monsters up 2-0. But then the goals would continue to come for both teams. The Monsters would appear to lose focus.
Less than 30 seconds after the 2nd Lake Eire goal, the Wild answered back while both teams were on the penalty kill when Iowa’s Jordan Schroeder riffled the puck past a crowded crease and a befuddled Joonas Korpisalo to narrow the Monster’s lead to only one.
To close off a more or less disappointing second frame for the Monsters, the Wild would score again, only this time short handed with 2:36 left in the 2nd period getting the unassisted goal from Zach Mitchell to tie the game at 2 a piece going into the 3rd period.
The Wild would double the amount of shots taken by Lake Erie in the 2nd period. And thanks to two player penalty kills, the Monster would finish the 2nd frame and start the 3rd with a 3 on 5 disadvantage.
On to the 3rd; The Monsters would rack up the penalties and may have been what cost them the game.
The Wild would respond first when Christian Folin scorched the puck past Korpisalo assisted by Maxime Fortunus cross-rink pass in the Lake Erie defensive zone during a power play to put the Wild up 3-2 only minutes into the 3rd period.
The Monsters appeared to lose more focus with 12:51 left in the 3rd when the Wild’s Grayson Downing scored thanks to assists from Christian Folin and Jordan Schroeder to put the Wild up 4-2.
The Monster’s would unfortunately not have it in them to finish the game on a high note with a final score of 4-2.
Korpisalo takes the loss for the Monsters with 27 saves and Leland Irving recorded the win for the Wild. The Wild had not won in their past 13 games. With the loss the Monsters fall to 12-5-1-2 on the season and take on the Wild once again tonight at Quicken Loans Arena. Puck drops at 7 PM.
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