Monsters pick perfect time to get hot

By Jim den Hollander

Midwesthockey.info

You’ve heard the joke about if you don’t like the weather in (pick your place),  just wait 10 minutes. The American Hockey League Central Division has been like that for several years.

Just wait a week and the standings will all be different. This season the division did more or less evolve into a couple of tiers, but of the four teams that moved on to the post season — Milwaukee Admirals, Rockford Ice Hogs, Grand Rapids Griffins and Lake Erie Monsters — each likely spent time in first place, second, third and fourth place this season.

Different teams got hot at different times. The Monsters though appear to have hit the boiling point at just the right time.

After finishing the regular season with a 9-1-1 record through its final 11, the Monsters rolled into the post season and dispatched the Rockford Ice Hogs in three straight games — two of them on Rockford ice.

Things can change quickly in this league, but the Monsters are running like a well oiled machine at this point.

The team scored five goals in each of the three games and 16 different players hit the score sheet in the series, led by Josh Anderson who will turn 22 during the next round of the post season. Anderson triggered a hat trick in the middle game and scored the first of game three as well for a five-point series.

Other than that, the Monsters had four points each from center Alex Broadhurst, a 23-year-old native of Orland Park, IL and Danish right winger Oliver Bjorkstrand who just turned 21. Six other players recorded three points in the series and seven collected a pair.

Meanwhile, Finnish goaltender Joonas Korpisalo who will turn 22 on Thursday, allowed just a half dozen goals on 79 shots for a .924 save percentage.  He honed his craft during a long stint with the Jackets and his stingy goaltending combined with the high flying offense of this team seems to have the Monsters ready for a long playoff ride.

The scoring was spread out well for the IceHogs as well as the team tallied just six in the series, but saw 13 different players record at least a point.

Tyler Motte, 21, who played just five regular season games with the Hogs after finishing his third year at University of Michigan scored twice for the IceHogs in the post season. Dennis Rasmussen, a 26-year-old center, Mark McNeill, a 23-year-old center and veteran defenseman, Jonathan Carlsson each picked up a goal and assist. The other goal came from 21 year old winger, Ryan Hartman.

Mac Carruth, a 24-year-old goaltender was called on to backstop the IceHogs in all three games.

Griffins take care of business

The other Central Division series is still going on, but the division champion Milwaukee Admirals will need a huge turn around to get this thing back onto home ice. The Grand Rapids Griffins, easily the streakiest team in the division in a season that saw both a 16-game winning streak and an eight-game losing skid, also might have the wheels turned forward at the right time as they earned a pair of hard fought road wins at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee this past weekend to put a stranglehold on the Best-Five set.

Veteran netminder Tom McCollum has played a big part in his team’s decisive series lead as he allowed just one goal in each of the first two games, a 3-1 win on Friday (April 22) and a 2-1 edge the following night.

Martin Frk, a 23-year-old Czech winger had enjoyed a stellar series so far, playing a part in four of the five Grand Rapids tallies with a goal and three assists and 21-year-old Tyler Bertuzzi has scored three of them. Anthony Mantha, 22 scored the other Grand Rapids goal.

Alex Kamenev, 19, from Russia and 20-year-old defenseman, Trevor Murphy have the goals for the Admirals so far while Finnish netminder, Juuse Saros who turned 21 on the eve of this series, has handled all of the work in goal for the Ads so far.

The Griffins will be looking to wrap up the series on home ice tonight (Tuesday, April 26) while the Monsters await a winner.