PHN’s Best Shots of the Game: Monsters top Griffins in OT, 3-2

CLEVELAND – Cleveland’s Lake Erie Monsters defeated the Grand Rapids Griffins in overtime on Thursday by a final score of 3-2 in game one of the two teams’ second-round Calder Cup Playoff series at Quicken Loans Arena. With the win, the Monsters claimed a 1-0 series lead over the Griffins in the best-of-seven game Central Division Finals.

After a scoreless first period, Grand Rapids grabbed a 1-0 lead just 58 seconds into the second period when Eric Tangradi poked a rebound past Lake Erie net-minder Joonas Korpisalo. The Monsters tied the game at 4:29 when Lukas Sedlak posted his second score of the playoffs at even-strength on feeds from Jaime Sifers and Josh Anderson.

The Monsters claimed their first lead at 11:29, when a power-play net-front scramble yielded Alex Broadhurst’s second of the postseason with Ryan Craig and Daniel Zaar notching assists on the play before a shorthanded Brian Lashoff score leveled things at two apiece for Grand Rapids at 16:11 of the middle period.

With most of the third period having slid by scoreless, the Monsters survived a final-minute penalty shot attempt by Griffins center Andy Miele and a video review in the opening minutes of overtime that saw a would-be Grand Rapids game-winning goal disallowed due to the puck being batted into the Lake Erie net by the hand of a Griffins player. Then, at 12:23 of the first extra session, Oliver Bjorkstrand pumped home a power-play feed from Broadhurst and Dean Kukan from the left faceoff dot to lift the Monsters to victory in Lake Erie’s first second-round playoff game in franchise history.

Korpisalo improved to 4-0 in the playoffs by virtue of a 22-save performance while Grand Rapids goaltender Tom McCollum stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced in defeat.
With Monsters game report