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Monsters Drop First Game of 2017

The Monsters fell to the Stars in game one of a back-to-back weekend series. The Stars ended their lose streak while Sonny Milano extended his goal streak to four games.

Three minutes into the first, the Texas Stars jumped to a 1-0 lead on a Remi Elie breakaway to the forehand of Joonas Korpisalo. Moments later, Korpisalo was way out of the net sitting behind the goal line but managed to get back into position before the Stars could monopolize on a lateral crease play that was forming.

The Monsters wouldn’t fire back with a goal until the 12:34 mark of the first period when Sonny Milano did Sonny Milano things and tied the game up.

Five minutes later, Ramage would extend the Monsters lead after firing from the top of the right circle.

The first period would end with the Monsters on top of the Stars, 2-1.

Alex Broadhurst had a great opportunity in the start of the second but the puck went off the goal post. Not much later Korpisalo lunged out of the goal crease to poke the puck away from the oncoming stampede of Stars.

Moments later the Monsters had an incredible shot at extending their lead. Sifers was blocked by Legace who then lost his stick. A Stars defender also lost his stick. Sifers tried to monopolize on the lack of sticks in his opponents hands and passed to an open Pendenza who shot the puck just wide of the empty net.

We don’t see the first penalty of the night until there was 12:11 left in the second when Herbert attempted to run John Ramage. Mike Brown stepped in to avenge said run. Herbert bailed when he saw  Brown coming and Austin Fyten took his place in the battle.

After all the penalties were tallied, the Monsters spent two minutes on the penalty kill.

Penalties doled out:

Mike Brown – Roughing – 2 minutes

John Ramage – Roughing – 2 minutes

Austin Fyten – Roughing – 2 minutes

Four minutes later Morin would head to the box for interference (2 minute minor). Nothing good would come of this power play opportunity for the Monsters. Defazio intercepted a pass and fired towards the Monster’s net. Instead of gloving the shot, Korpisalo threw the puck into a pack of players giving Nemeth the chance to tie things up, 2-2.

The Monsters would end the second period with 1:13 left on a holding penalty against Heatherington.

As the penalty ran out, Heatherington skated out of the box and beat Tynan to the puck at the left circle. He fired towards the goal but couldn’t convert the shot into a goal.

Towards the middle of the third period, Korpisalo and Legace basically stood on their heads for a few minutes trading blocked shot after blocked shot.

With 8:42 left in the game, Dickinson would extend the Stars lead, 3-2, on a fluky shot that bounced off of Korpisalo’s left skate. Not long after Dickinson scored, Stransky headed to the sin bin giving the Monsters a chance to tie things up on the power play. Unfortunately, the Monsters were unable to tie things up on the power play and Stransky scored on Korpisalo immediately after leaving the box.

The Monsters were unable to fire back and ended up falling to the Stars, 4-2.

They have their chance at redemption on Saturday, January 7 at 8pm est in Texas.