Official 3/28/08 Game Thread - Monsters vs. Marlies

Lake Erie Monsters (25-34-5-7) vs. Toronto Marlies (43-18-3-6)
Date: Friday, March 28th
Time: 7:30 p.m. EDT
Arena: Quicken Loans Arena
Radio: Listen live here to ESPN 850 WKNR
Webcast: Live through B2

Friday's Quick Facts:
Tonight is the first of three straight nights of games for Lake Erie, who is playing five games in six nights this week.

The Monsters and Marlies will meet for the seventh time tonight. Lake Erie is 2-4 against Toronto on the season, however the two teams have not faced off since November. The Monsters are 1-2 against the Marlies at The Q. Chris Stewart has led the charge against Toronto, recording six points (5G, 1A) in the series. Jason Bacashihua was in goal for both wins over Toronto.

Eric Healey leads the Monsters with 51 points (21G, 30A) on the season, including 15 points (6G, 9A) in the last 11 games. Rookie Chris Stewart is the top goal-scorer (23) for Lake Erie, helped by six points (4G, 2A) in the past six games. Wyatt Smith has produced 11 points (6G, 5A) in the last nine contests. T.J. Hensick has 10 points (1G, 9A) in 10 games.

oaky, here we go again. how do i think the monsters will fair? well i hope they win but the only way i think we can win is if toronto rests some of their top guys for the playoffs and/or we jump on them early and keep the pressure on the WHOLE game not just one period.
i am trying to be optimistic but will probably just be let down again.
GO MONSTERS!!

is it me or does it seem like the fact that the monsters play a stacked schedule is used as an excuse? it's not a triple header, there's time between the games. they're playing teams with similar schedules. if our coach would have the guys do some conditioning...

free hats though.

it's crunch time, the early part of the season the games we're spread apart. its always like this @ the end of the season, even in the nhl.

They got outhustled, outmuscled, and just out played last night. I understand that they have a lot of young guys from ECHL up and Toronto is very good. The ref was god awful too. The Monsters were getting hooked, crosschecked, and slashed and that idiot called nothing. Toronto also played physical and never gave the Monsters control of the game. I understand you that you want to give the young guys some experience, but you need some toughness in the lineup and since Purinton is suspended, then I think Love should be in there tonite.

all good assessments. to add to that, toronto were a class act team. once they had the game comfortably in hand, they played defensive offense. they were managing the puck, but stopped shooting. that was nice. they didn't need to be manitoba and embarrass the monsters in front of 15,000 people.