The Cleveland Monsters had more shots on goal against Rockford, but the IceHogs found themselves the victors in a 4-1 final score.
Cleveland’s road trip has not gone well. The Monsters have lost the first two games of this trip, the latest being a 4-1 loss in Rockford to the IceHogs.
Shots on goal aren’t everything
Cleveland led in shots on goal 28-26, including a lopsided 16-9 2nd period. Unfortunately that did not lead to much success in the goal scoring department. The Monsters lone goal came in the 2nd period. Maxime Fortier scored his second goal of the season with Doyle Somerboy and Anton Karlsson assisting on the play.
Specialty Teams struggle
Not a great outing for the Monsters specialty teams. Cleveland had two power play opportunities and failed to score on both. Meanwhile, Rockford scored on one of their four chances with a one man advantage. Typically Cleveland’s penalty kill is able to prevent their opponent from scoring. While they only allowed one goal on the penalty kill, that one goal equaled their total from the entire game.
Brad Thiessen got the start in net Saturday
With three games in three days, splitting up the goaltending duties makes a ton of sense and that is just what Mike Eaves did. Veini Vehvilainen started Friday while Brad Thiessen started on Saturday. Thiessen saved 22 of 25 shots on goal, the fourth goal came on an empty net. This is the second straight game that the Monsters surrendered an empty net goal that ending up being the fourth goal of the game for their opponent.
