From the Monsters Desk: All-American Weekend

The beloved Monsters have a welcome homestand this weekend before heading off to the far corners of the AHL on a two week 7-game roadtrip. The arch-rival Rochester Amerks will be at the Q for two games on Friday and Sunday.

Wednesday night Lake Erie finished up their season series against the Toronto Marlies and suffered a 4-3 shootout loss. Contrary to the mayhem in the last couple of meetings, the two teams combined for a sedate 67 PIMs and but one fight.

The game started off with a dirty uncalled crosscheck that knocked Gabe Beaupre out of the game. Desbiens beat the crap out the offender a few minutes later, but this limited the Monsters to 5 defenders for the rest of the game. Other than that, the first was a lot of back and forth with neither team gaining enough momentum to score.

The second was completely different. 2 goals apiece, Schumacher on a wild off-angle shot and Stef Elliott with a trademark wrist rocket for LEM and a PPG and a softie that trickled through Picks' 5-hole for the Marlies. The 3rd featured lots of dumb penalties on both sides. Brett Clark scored early on an absolutely nasty wrist shot from the point and the Monsters managed to hold that lead until two and a half minutes to go when Toronto got LE running around in the D-zone and fired one high over Picks' glove hand. Marlies went 2/3 in the shootout and Monsters went 0/4 and that's all she wrote.

The Good:

Schumacher, Elliot and Clark with some fancy shooting on the goals

Elliott, Cheek and Smith all had excellent games, the latter with 2 assists

The Bad:

Defense was played out by the end of the game with only 5 guys

Special teams sucked again PP 0/4, PK 1/3

Picks was notso hotso

Boxscore

Highlights:

Chynoweth Post-game:

Thanks to the Monsters for the vids.

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I must have cursed poor Trent Daavettila by praising him in Wednesday's article, he has been released from his PTO. This leads me to believe that either Garrett Meurs is out of the doghouse or prospect Troy Bourke is ready to play for the weekend.

New ATO signing Max Iafrate is following in his father's footsteps, was voted 2nd for hardest shot in the WC of the OHL by the coaches this week. Nice going!

Bryan Lerg and J.T. Wyman will be buzzing their hair after the game tonight for Locks of Love, and you can still donate here. Good cause, I did the same a few years ago when I chopped mine off.

Ever wondered how the synergy between NHL club and AHL affiliate works? I know I have. Found an interesting article from chicagobusiness.com on how it all works. Good stuff.

Sami instagrammed a pic of his pads for Pink The Rink on Friday night:

The Monsters drop a spot to 25th this week in the Hockey Writers AHL Power Rankings

Schedule:

Monsters vs Amerks Friday night 7:30pm ET, radio on WHKW

Monsters vs Amerks Sunday afternoon 3:00pm ET, radio on WHK

Links:

Team stats

AHL standings - Monsters 13th in the West, 4th in North

Next up:

At Chicago on Wednesday night, then at Milwaukee on Friday and back to Chicago on Saturday

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Friday's game starts 90 minutes before the Avs/Bs and Sunday's comes at a great time for anyone that hates to be outdoors on lovely Spring afternoons. Join in the fun and support your Monsters!