TORONTO – In the fourth of four meetings between the two teams this season, Cleveland’s Lake Erie Monsters extended their point streak to six games in a 4-3 overtime loss at the hands of the Toronto Marlies at Toronto’s Ricoh Coliseum on Friday. With the overtime loss, the Monsters improved to 39-21-6-5 overall this season and with a .627 points percentage, remain alone in third place in the AHL’s Central Division standings.
Alex Broadhurst delivered the Monsters a 1-0 lead just 1:26 into the first period on Friday thanks to an even-strength end-wall feed from Michael Chaput, but the Marlies answered back with an unassisted, even-strength Connor Brown goal just six seconds later to level the score at one apiece.
Toronto claimed their first lead at 1:06 of the middle frame by virtue of a Ben Smith even-strength goal, before former Monster Colin Smith notched his 20th of the season on the power-play at 15:03 of the second to make it 3-1 Marlies heading into the third.
In the final frame, a pair of Monsters defensemen combined to tie the game at three as Michael Paliotta drew Lake Erie within a goal at 1:18 on five-on-five feeds from T.J. Tynan and Ryan Craig, before Mark Cundari banged a shot off a Toronto skate at 4:44 with Chaput and Daniel Zaar collecting even-strength assists on the play.
In overtime, Toronto’s Mark Arcobello ended the game on the power-play just 27 seconds into the extra session to deliver the Marlies a 4-3 win and with it, a North Division title and the 2015-16 Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as regular-season AHL Champions.
Following a 28-save performance, Monsters goaltender Anton Forsberg is now 21-10-5 in net for Lake Erie this year, while Toronto’s Antoine Bibeau improved to 26-8-1 between the pipes for the Marlies after stopping 31 of the 34 pucks he faced.
Next up for the Monsters, it’s a Saturday road clash vs. the Rochester Americans with full coverage, live from Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY, underway at 7:35 pm on 99X and the Monsters Hockey Network.
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