Lake Erie finishes perfect opening weekend by beating Marlies

CLEVELAND , Oh – A different goalie created the same result in the Monsters latest victory in Cleveland Sunday afternoon.  
Tyler Weiman made 40 saves to help the Monsters top Toronto (0-1-0-1), another North Division foe, 4-3 in front of 3,005 fans at Quicken Loans Arena.
The game marked consecutive victories to open the season for Lake Erie (2-0-0-0).   Weiman’s performance was the second straight strong performance in net for the Monsters, who got 33 saves from Jason Bacashihua over Grand Rapids last night.
“Weim’s was great,” Coach Joe Sacco said, who was pleased with his team’s effort.   “We talked about not playing in their hands and except for turning the puck over in our end a couple of times we did that.” Center man Nathan Smith who scored the game winner said, “He made a number of saves from point blank range that he was just quick on and he was the one who won the game for us.”
Veteran winger Jesse Boulerice opened the scoring at 14:54 of the first with his second goal in as many games.   Chris Stewart and T.J. Hensick were given helpers on Boulerice’s goal.
Toronto ’s gifted veteran winger Bates Battaglia scored the equalizer at 9:28 of the period on an odd man rush.   Marlies center Andre Deveaux, who led the Calder Cup champion Chicago Wolves in penalty minutes last year, was credited with the assist.
The Monsters closed out the second period scoring by converting on their first power play opportunity.   Brian Willsie netted his second goal of the year with assists to Hensick and Chris Durno with 3:16 left in the period.
The second period saw the Marlies pick up the physical play.   “The one area we tried to focus on was their aggressiveness in the neutral zone,” Sacco said.   “They tried to pinch us off and we were able to counterattack a couple of times by getting pucks off the boards and chipping the puck behind their defense.”  
Monsters defenseman Kyle Cuminsky did exactly that by using the boards on a perfect pass to Hensick. Hensick broke in alone on the right wing and snapped of a wrister from the top of the right face off circle that found the back of the net at 9:05 mark of the second period.   Hensick’s goal gave the Monsters a 3-1 lead going into the third.
Toronto got back in the game quickly on a pair of turnovers deep in the Monsters zone.   Marlies defenseman Richard Petiot followed up a rebound from a Robbie Earl shot and scored a spectacular spin-o-rama backhand that beat Weiman just 46 seconds in to the third period.
Lake Erie was careless in clearing a puck deep in the defensive zone and the Marlies Darryl Boyce scored the tying goal with 6:49 remaining in the game.
With less than a minute to play, the Monster’s Durno made a perfect pass to Smith in the slot and he blistered the game winner by Marlies goaltender Justin Pogge.  
Smith who played 13 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins last year was signed by the Colorado Avalanche as a free agent on July 14 this year. “It is a nice way to start the year for sure,” Smith said.   “Last night was a similar and we stuck with it and it was nice to get the wins.”
Notes:
Monsters (C) Matt Hendricks did not play due to a rib injury suffered in Saturday’s game.   (C ) Rob Drummond replaced Hendricks.
The Monsters have been outshot by 12 shots in each of their first two games.
The Monsters power play is 2 for 9 while the penalty kill is perfect having killed all 12 penalties.
The Monsters will have an off day on Monday before getting ready for another weekend home stand Friday against the Norfolk Admirals and a rematch Saturday against Grand Rapids.
  Contact the author at glenn.osowski@prohockeynews.com .