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AHL Cleveland Monsters

Lake Erie Losing Streak Continues Despite Rookie Goalie's Efforts

February 17, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Monsters News Release


Rookie goaltender Calvin Pickard was in uniform for the Colorado Avalanche (NHL) for their game in Edmonton, Alberta on Saturday night and turned around to start in net for the Lake Erie Monsters (24-20-2-6) in Rockford, Illinois less than 24 hours later. Despite Pickard turning away 40 IceHogs shots in 65 minutes, the Monsters fell 2-1 in a shootout to Rockford (24-25-1-1) at the BMO Harris Bank Center Sunday night. Fellow rookie Paul Carey scored the lone goal for the Monsters, giving him a goal in three straight games and power play goal in two straight contests. Lake Erie has now lost eight straight games (0-4-0-4).

Carey opened the scoring for the Monsters- notching his 13th of the season- when he followed a rush and tapped in the rebound from a Geoff Walker attempt from in-close. Carey's goal at 10:16 of the first period came on the power play and was assisted by Walker and Brad Malone.

Evening the score at 1-1, Rockford's Kyle Beach netted a man-advantage tally on a back-door pass from Brandon Pirri with 50 seconds remaining in the first period. That would be the end of the scoring for both teams for the rest of regulation.

With the score still knotted at 1-1 after 60 minutes, the game headed to overtime. Despite the Monsters outshooting the IceHogs 7-2 in the five-minute sudden death frame, neither team was able to capitalize, forcing a shootout.

After Rockford converted their first two attempts and took a 2-0 lead, the Monsters fought back to eventually send the traditional five-round shootout into extra rounds. Markus Lauridsen and Gary Steffes, Lake Erie's third and fifth shooters, were successful. When Rockford's seventh shooter, Brad Mills, scored, and Karl Stollery did not convert for the Monsters, the IceHogs claimed the final 2-1 win.

Pickard stopped 40 of 41 through 65 minutes of regulation and overtime, and his record now stands at 13-11-4. Carter Hutton is 18-18-1 after stopping 35 of 36 in Rockford's shootout win.

The Monsters are back in action when they host the Milwaukee Admirals at 7:00 PM Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena; the kickoff to an eight-game home stand for Lake Erie.

NOTES: The Monsters are now 5-6 in shootouts this season, and their road record moves to 14-11-1-3 overall... The Monsters finished the season series with Rockford with a record of 0-2-0-2, after sweeping the four-game season series last season... Gary Steffes scored in his first shootout attempt of the season for the Monsters, while Lauridsen improved to 3-3 in shootouts on the year... The Monsters scored a power play goal for the third straight game, going 1-3 on the power play while finishing the game 4-5 on the penalty kill.

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