CLEVELAND, Ohio – Lake Erie came out strong dictating play against the weary Rampage. The Monsters struck first when Rampage goaltender Markstrom misplayed the puck behind his own goal where Justin Mercier made no mistake putting it into an open net at 1:40 of the opening period for his second goal of the season.
San Antonio could have jumped back into the game with a power play nearly a minute later when Mike Carman was sent off for interference, but the Monsters kept San Antonio away from the net as the short-handed situation was never a threat.
Play was largely held in the San Antonio zone for the next six minutes until Lake Erie added a second goal. Taking a nifty feed across the blue line, Mike Carman, is just his second game, sent a quick shot underneath Markstrom’s blocker for his first of the season.
One of five goals in Lake Erie%27s dominant 5-2 victory over San Antonio
The Monsters dominated play leading in shots 7-6 and the period ended with a 2-0 lead for the home team.
San Antonio began the second period the same way they played the entire first period; back on their heels. Just less than a minute in, Ryan Stoa made it 3-0 with his first of the year when he poked in a rebound after a Luke Walker shot that Markstrom got a piece of, but could not control. San Antonio scored on three of their first eight shots taking advantage of a shaken Markstrom.
Lake Erie digs in the corner to create a scoring chance.
Despite the initial barrage, Markstrom eventually settled down stopping the next ten shots and kept the Monsters from increasing their lead. His counterpart at the other end, Cedrick Desjardins was sparingly tested until the end of the second frame.
That’s when Tim Kennedy sent Colby Robak in on goal where he fired a slap shot from between the circles over Desjardins’s shoulder to break the goose egg on the San Antonio side of the scoreboard. It was Robak’s third tally of the season and gave San Antonio life heading into the third period. Lake Erie continued to lead in shots 18-15.
Entering the final period and sensing San Antonio might come out flying, Lake Erie took control and took back control of the game they had been dominating most of the night. The Monsters took just twenty-six seconds to regain their three-goal margin.
Right after the face-off to open the period, Lake Erie’s Evan Brophey took the puck across the blueline and fed it to teammate Greg Mauldin who took it deep behind the Rampage goal. He sent a crisp pass to David van der Gulik who snapped a quick shot over Markstrom’s right pad for his fourth goal of the season and team-leading tenth point.
San Antonio attempts to swat the puck out of harms way.
Markstrom kept the game from getting out of hand though and San Antonio kept battling. They inched closer when Mike Kostka was credited with a goal, his third of the season, during a goal-mouth scramble. Angelo Esposito was credited with the assist and San Antonio was back in the game.
San Antonio continued to press with short shifts and quick breakouts from their own zone, but Desjardins buckled down in net. With just under a minute to go, Brad Malone netted his second goal of the season into an empty net goal to secure the 5-2 victory for the Lake Erie Monsters.
San Antonio eager to win the draw and get back into the game.
The victory improved the Monsters record to 5-9-1-0 and 11 points while San Antonio fell to 4-7-0-0 and 8 points.
Special thanks to Ben Hall for the images of tonight’s game.
Contact Dennis.Morrell@prohockeynews.com
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