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Monsters Mash: The Road Trip Ends

Posted on by Elaine Shircliff

Record: 11-19-3-3, 28 points, .389 win%, 7th Central, 15th West

The Cleveland Monsters saw their seven-game road trip come to an end this past week.

On Wednesday, January 10th, the Monsters were able to hold the  Milwaukee Admirals to one goal. This may not seem like much since the Monsters didn’t walk away with the win but there were a lot of positives which saw the light of day. They looked confident and energized meeting the Admirals at their level of compete.

The Monsters fell to the Grand Rapids Griffins, 4-2, on Friday. Despite allowing four goals, Matiss Kivlenieks looked good. He used the shape of the net to his benefit and held onto more shots than normal. The short amount of time Kivlenieks spent in Columbus was clearly beneficial to him.

Joonas Korpisalo, Tyler Motte, and Cameron Gaunce led the team to a much needed 2-1 victory over the Griffins. This was the perfect end to a long road trip.

Transactions

The Monsters experienced another week full of transactions.

After Wednesday (01/10) night’s game against the Milwaukee Admirals, Joonas Korpisalo was sent back to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Matiss Kivlenieks was returned to the Monsters.

Michael Kirkpatrick was signed to a PTO and Hayden Hodgson was loaned to the Florida Everblades (ECHL) on January 10th.

At the time of his signing, Kirkpatrick was in a three-way tie for first in the ECHL for points (40) with Justin Danforth (Cincinnati Cyclones) and Michael Joly (Colorado Eagles).

Hayden Hodgson has since returned to the Monsters. The loan was only for the weekend. Likely to help the Everblades replenish roster spots during the ECHL All-Star Weekend.

January 11th was a bit of a busy day for the Monsters. They signed defender, Garret Cockerill, to a 25-game PTO. He started the season as an Alternate Captain for Northeastern University. In December, Cockerill left the team to play for the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL. Cockerill was paired with Doyle Somerby in his first game with the squad.

Zac Dalpe and Dean Kukan were assigned to the Monsters on January 11th. They were unable to get to the Monsters vs Griffins game on the 12th in time. During the Monsters 2-1 win over the Griffins on the 13th, both Kukan and Dalpe tallied an assist.

Tyler Motte and Joonas Korpisalo were assigned to the Monsters on the 12th. Korpisalo was on a conditioning loan with the team. This allowed the Monsters to roll with three goalies during the Jackets’ bye week.

Motte scored a power play goal in Saturday’s game. While Korpisalo almost pitched a shutout stopping 35 of 36 shots faced.

Korpisalo was not at practice for the Monsters’ on Tuesday. It’s likely he is on the way back to Columbus and will be at Jackets’ practice on Wednesday.

On Monday, January 15th, Jacob Graves was reassigned by the Jackets to the Monsters. He has been playing for the Quad City Mallards (ECHL). Over 24 games with the Mallards this season, Graves has notched four assists.

Team Leaders

Point Scorers

  1. Carter Camper; 24
  2. Alex Broadhurst; 16
  3. Dean Kukan, Miles Koules; 14

Goal Scorers

  1. Miles Koules; 8
  2. Carter Camper, Alex Broadhurst; 7
  3. Paul Bittner, Tyler Motte, Sam Vigneault; 6

Assists

  1. Carter Camper; 17
  2. Dean Kukan; 13
  3. Alex Broadhurst, Cameron Gaunce; 9

Penalty Minutes

  1. Brett Gallant; 60
  2. Cameron Gaunce; 42
  3. John Ramage; 35

Weekly Stats

Around the AHL

Leaders

Point Scorers

  1. Chris Bourque, Chris Terry; 41
  2. Phil Varone; 40
  3. Dylan Strome, Travis Morin; 37

Goal Scorers

  1. Chris Terry, Valentin Zykov; 19
  2. Nick Merkley, Buddy Robinson, Curtis McKenzie; 18
  3. Ben Smith, Bobby Butler, Warren Foegele, Danick Martel, Greg Carey, Matthew Highmore; 17

Assists

  1. Travis Morin; 32
  2. Matt Taormina; 30
  3. Chris Bourque, Phil Varone; 29

Penalty Minutes

  1. Ross Johnston; 113
  2. Alex Gallant; 110
  3. Tyler Lewington; 96

Goaltenders

  1. Garret Sparks; 1.79 GAA, 15 wins, 38 GA, .938 sav%
  2. Jordan Binnington; 1.81 GAA, 10 wins, 25 GA, .931 sav%sav%
  3. Michael Hutchinson; 1.94 GAA, 14  wins, 39 GA, .942 sav%

Awards

Andrey Pedan earned “CCM/AHL Player of the Week” after scoring five points (3goal, 2assists) and earning a plus-five rating in two games last week.

Story Lines

Former Columbus Blue Jacket and current Stockton Heat defender, Cody Goloubef, is headed to the 2018 Olympics with Team Canada. He sat down with Kristen Odland to discuss the Olympic bid. Read the article here.

Speaking of the Olympics, AHL referee, Tim Mayer is headed to PyeongChang. Peter J. Wallner of Mlive.com chatted with him about the upcoming gig. You can find the article here.

Talking Points