Monsters and Griffs set for round two

The American Hockey League Division final playoff series will get underway Wednesday night and that is not a moment too soon for both clubs.

While the grind of travel and the tough schedule is spoken about often in hockey, in this case both the Lake Erie Monsters and Grand Rapids Griffins likely wouldn’t have minded getting started a little bit earlier.

Both had to let the league catch up after respective three-game sweeps in their Best-of-Five Central Division semi-final matches. The Monsters entered the post season as the hottest team in the league, with a 9-1-1-0 record through its final 11 games.

The Monsters started the post season early, getting underway at Rockford, Wednesday April 20 against the host Rockford IceHogs and wrapping up a sweep just four days later on home ice, the same day Toronto Marlies and Bridgeport Sound Tigers began their series.

It will have been 11 days since that series sweep when the Monsters finally face off at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland against the Griffins to start the Central Division championship series.

The wait has been only slightly shorter for the Griffins, who entered the post season as the division’s number four seed, but dispatched number one Milwaukee Admirals in just three games as well, wrapping it up with two wins in Milwaukee and the third on home ice Tuesday, April 26.

It’s doubtful one of the teams will be able to win this one in a sweep. During the regular season the two teams squared off a dozen times, the Griffins winning seven and five of the games went to either overtime or a shootout. The Monsters won the first two of the season and the final two as well, but the Griffins won seven of eight between Nov. 28, 2015 and Jan. 20, 2016.

With only three games played in the opening round, it’s not expected players form these two teams would be among the league players in playoff points, but there are a few of them right there, including Josh Anderson who will turn 22 on May 7. The young right winger put up four goals and an assist against the Ice Hogs. Anthony Mantha has been hot at the right time as well, the 21-year-old Quebec native collecting three goals and a helper for the Griffs already.

Oliver Bjorkstrand, a 21-year-old native of Denmark collected two goals and two assists for the Monsters in the opening round and Alex Broadhurst, 23, from Orland Park, IL added a goal and three helpers against the Ice Hogs.

Martin Frk, a 22-year-old Czech Republic native also has a goal and three assists for the Griffins while Tyler Bertuzzi, 21, from Ontario has been potent around the net with three goals in three games.

In goal, both teams used the same guy the whole way so far and that trend should continue.

Tom McCollum, a 26-year-old New York native has three wins and he has stopped an amazing 91 of 94 shots against for a .968 Save Percentage, second to only Garrett Sparks of the Toronto Marlies who has yet to be beat in two games, stopping all 43 of the shots he faced in the opening round. McCollum has posted a 1.00 Goals Against Average and likely will be relied on heavily in the next round as well.

For the Monsters, Joonas Korpisalo, a 22-year-old netminder from Finland has played all three games, stopping 73 of 79 for a 2.00 GAA and a .924 S).

The Best-of-Seven Championship series begins in Cleveland on Thursday night with the winner moving on to the Western Conference Championship against either the San Diego Gulls or Ontario Reign from the Pacific Division. On the Eastern Conference side, the Marlies and Albany Devils will meet to decide the North Division title while the Hershey Bears will faceoff against the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins to decide the Atlantic Division

Listed Below is the full schedule for the Monsters and Griffins is listed below

Game 1 — Thursday, May 5 at Lake Erie Quicken Loans Arena — 6 p.m. CDT

Game 2 — Saturday May 7 at Lake Erie Quicken Loans Arena — 11 a.m. CDT

Game 3 — Sunday, May 8 at Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena — 3 p.m. CDT

Game 4 — Tuesday May 10 at Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena — 6 p.m. CDT

Game 5 (If Necessary) — Saturday, May 14 at Lake Erie Quicken Loans Arena — 6 p.m. CDT

Game 6 (If Necessary) — Monday, May 16 at Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena — 6 p.m. CDT

Game 7 (If Necessary) — Tuesday, May 17 at Lake Erie Quicken Loans Arena — 6 p.m. CDT