The Monsters shutout the IceHogs last night ending their three-game lose streak. Thiessen stopped 32 shots.
During the first period, both teams played a defensively sound game. Offensively, not so much. There were a lot of great shot attempts but each team’s defense was there almost instantly to break up the play.
The Monsters played a bit fancier than normal for the first half of the game. Once they went back to the basics momentum turned in their favor.
With a little under three minutes to go in the second period, Justin Scott fed the puck to an open Blake Siebenaler who fired it into the netting behind Jeff Glass.
After Scott’s goal, tempers began to rise between the two teams. There were multiple scuffles in front of the net and an egregious high stick. Yet, a penalty wasn’t called until the first four minutes of the third period. The refs were keeping the whistles secure in their pockets and letting the guys play.
A few minutes after the first penalty of the game, Alex Broadhurst scored a backhanded beauty giving the Monsters a 2-0 lead over the IceHogs.
Towards the end of the game, we saw a bit of a breakdown in the IceHogs power play unit. They had a 6-on-4 for the last 45 seconds of the game due to a Ryan Stanton double minor penalty. The Monsters were unable to score on the penalty kill which involved an empty net. However, they were able to fire on the empty net multiple times. As well as, get into scoring position twice.
The kind of pressure the Monsters applied during their penalty kill will be beneficial in tonight’s game against the Grand Rapids Griffins.