Coming off a split with the Rockford IceHogs over the weekend, the beloved Monsters played perhaps their most craptacular game of the year on Tuesday morning against the hated Rochester Amerks, leaving the rink with a 5-1 loss. This weekend has AHL doormat Iowa blowing into the Q for a 2 game set. Danger.
News
- Stefan Elliott was returned to the Monsters Wednesday after 5 games with the Avs and boy could we use him right about now.
- PTOs James Martin and Shawn Szydlowski were released back to the Komets. As coach Jock alluded to on Saturday's broadcast, we could be getting some fellows back from injury.
- Big Sam Henley returned to the lineup on Tuesday and was the only bright spot with the lone goal
Injury Report
As of Tuesday morning we have the following
Duncan Siemens (wrist, skating in NC jersey)
Tomas Vincour (UBI, skating in NC jersey)
Mike Sgarbossa (UBI, might have been spotted skating in NC jersey)
Colin Smith (broken leg, out for another month at least)
Max Noreau (shoulder surgery, out for the season)
Ben Street was scratched (not on injury report) for reasons unknown in Tuesday's game
With Szydlowski released, there's 11 known healthy forwards so Street must be fine and either Boss or Vinny should come back for Friday's game.
With Martin released and Elliott back in Cleveland, there's 7 healthy D. The Avs currently have only 6 healthy defensemen so it's likely someone (besides Elliott) will get called up. Siemens is likely healthy making 7 again.
Recap - Week 20.1
The Monsters put on a dominating performance Friday against the IceHogs, outshooting them 38-16 overall but needed a last-minute goal from Andrew Agozzino to seal the victory. The first period saw 3 successful PKs for LEM, boosting their performance of late to 32 of the last 33, and in spite of that had a 16-8 shot advantage. The second was even more in favor with a 12-2 mark, unfortunately one of the 2 shots for RFD found it’s way into the net. The fear of winning the game everywhere but on the scoreboard, as the parent Avalanche did against Los Angeles on Wednesday, was very real. Fortunately the "power" play became the POWER PLAY and scored 2 goals in the 3rd and another at even strength for a 3-2 win.
Early in the 3rd, Calvin Pickard was behind the net playing the puck and Rockford forward Matt Carey smashed into him. He was obviously shaken up but stayed in the game. Afterwards he mentioned that he "had his bell rung" a little, and his performance since has been pretty off. Michael Schumacher scored the first of his two goals on the ensuing PP.
Saturday's game was a complete opposite of Friday’s. Picks was good for a while but faltered at the end of the 2nd period. Rockford matched their shot total from the previous game in the first 20 minutes and the Monsters couldn’t wear down Scott Darling enough to get the goals they needed. Troy Bourke scored a wacky goal to tie the game up in the 2nd, but Pickard let in a couple of softies right after and was pulled for Sami Aittokallio. Markus Lauridsen scored in the late 6v5 flurry but that was all and LEM fell 3-2.
After Rockford came out smokin’ and had the first 12 SOG of the game in the first 9 minutes, the Monsters played an even game, but the damage was done. Even with just 19 shots, LEM had quite a few scoring chances but couldn’t convert. Lots of missed shots and bouncing pucks made things frustrating. The players were audibly frustrated coming off the ice after the 3rd, this was definitely a winnable game. That said a split for the weekend against a team like this isn’t bad at all.
Tuesday morning's game was an atrocity and gets my vote for worst performance of the year so far. For whatever reason, the Monsters struggle with really bad teams and they got blown out of the building by Rochester 5-1. Pickard was bad, Street was out of the lineup for some reason and nobody could get anything going. LEM had their chance with a continuous power play for 5 minutes, including almost a minute of 5v3, early in the 2nd but couldn't convert and Rochester just laughed their way to the win after that. Sam Henley returned to the ice and scored the only goal.
Preview - Iowa
The Wilds are the worst team in the AHL. By a bunch. 18 wins in 57 games and 2 in their last 10. They are also 2-0 vs Lake Erie this year with the Monsters picking up one loser point. After getting the crap kicked out of them by the shitbox Amerks on Tuesday, these are both must win games for the Monsters.
Calvin Pickard has been struggling ever since he was clocked in the head late in last Friday's game. He's been letting in easy unscreened shots and looks a little slow to react. Maybe it's just a coincidence or a mini-slump, but I hope whatever's been ailing him clears up for this coming stretch. The Monsters don't have the lineup to win many games where they need to score more than 3 right now.
With the expected player movement, here's what the lines might look like:
Aggz/Street/Ryan
Schumi/Hish/Petryk
Bourke/Cheek/Vinny?
Heard/Henley/Mags
Stalls (or Lauridsen?)/Elliott
Corbett/Bruno
Lauridsen (or Siemens?)/Boop
Scratches: Meurs, Leach
Schedule
Friday night vs Iowa 7:30pm in the ET, radio on WKNR
Saturday night vs Iowa 7:00pm in the ET, radio on WHK 1420
Links
Next up
Wednesday night game vs Milwaukee, then Chicago on the weekend
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Both games run concurrent with the Avs so check back here and on twitter for updates and recaps. Enjoy!