Monsters Fall At Home in Shootout to Milwaukee 4-3

CLEVELAND – With Milwaukee on a four-road game losing streak, and the Lake Erie on a hot streak winning their last four, the Monsters took on the Admirals for the second time this week hoping to capitalize on the previous win and remain in the hunt for secure spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs which will begin late April.

Lake Erie though couldn’t keep up their success, as they fell at home 4-3 to Milwaukee in a shootout, halting the Monsters four-game win streak.

Sonny Milano would get things started for the Monsters 5:29 minutes into the first period by going upper 90 on Admiral net minder Juuse Saros after skating uncontested in the defensive zone of the through the left circle to sneak in his 8th goal of the season on a power play.

Kirby Rychel and TJ Tynan recorded the assists on the play. ANs then at the 17:21 minute mark of the opening frame, on a power play, Milwaukee’s Max Gortz would score his 12th goal of the season to bring the game to a tie going into the second period. Trevor Murphy and Kevin Fiala would assist Gortz on the play.

As for the second frame, Pontus Aberg of the Admirals would send his 15th goal of the season past Monster’s goalie Anton Forsberg less than five minutes into the middle period. Matt White and Taylor Aronson assisted on the go-ahead goal and put the Admirals up 2-1.

But the Monsters would respond with a Daniel Zaar marker, his 17th of the season, at the 12:45 minute mark assisted by Alex Broadhurst to tie the game at 2 a piece.

Then with 5 minutes remaining in the middle frame, Josh Anderson would slide one under the pad of Saros for his 14th goal of the season getting help from Trent Vogelhuber and Oleg Yevenko to put the Monsters up 3-2 heading into the final frame.

The final frame was looking good, Monsters appeared to have plenty of energy, but with only 3 minutes left, Kevin Fiala would flip the tying goal over the stick side shoulder of Forsberg.

Assisting on the play were Stefan Elliot and Gortz to make the score 3-3 and send the game into overtime where neither team could stamp their golden ticket to victory as the game would head to a shootout.

Unfortunately for the Monsters, Milwaukee would win the shootout, and the Admirals would take the win thanks to Kevin Fiala and Matt White capitalizing on their shootout opportunities while none of the Monsters selected for the shootout (Milano and Rychel) connected for Lake Erie.

Monsters fall to 31-17-5-5 on the season and next up for the Monsters is a four game road trip starting with the Rockford Icehogs this Saturday in Rockford.