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AHL Cleveland Monsters

Monsters Fall in Texas, 4-1

April 6, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Monsters News Release


The Lake Erie Monsters (29-32-0-9) were upended for the second time in three days by the American Hockey League leading Texas Stars (45-17-3-6) by a 4-1 score Sunday evening at Cedar Park Center in Cedar Park, Texas. David van der Gulik scored the lone goal for the Monsters, who have dropped three straight games. At the conclusion of Sunday's AHL action, the Monsters are nine points behind the Rochester Americans, who currently own the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Monsters have six games remaining, while Rochester also has six games to play.

In an eventful four-on-four sequence, a scoreless game became a 1-1 game in a 34 second span in the second period. Jyrkki Jokipakka opened the scoring on a wrist shot from the left circle off a rush to give Texas a 1-0 lead at 8:14 of the second period, before David van der Gulik tied the game for the Monsters at the 8:48 mark of the frame. Brett Clark sent a puck toward the goal, Mark Olver tapped it to the high slot for van der Gulik, and van der Gulik snapped a puck past Texas goalie Cristopher Nilstorp to tie the game at 1-1. The goal was the 12th of the season for van der Gulik.

At 16:59 of the second period, the Stars Scott Glennie scored just 11 seconds into a power play after a series of tic-tac-toe passes to give Texas a 2-1 lead.

Texas added two third period goals; the first of which came from Brett Ritchie at the 16:21 mark when he cut through the right circle and lifted a backhand top-shelf to put the Stars up 3-1. Justin Dowling added an empty-netter with 1:05 remaining in regulation to give the Stars a 4-1 lead.

Sami Aittokallio stopped 23 of 26 Texas shots; he is 13-14-3 with the loss. Cristopher Nilstorp stopped 30 of 31 Monsters shots, and is now 25-12-4 for Texas.

The Monsters are back on the ice Thursday at 7:00 PM against the Utica Comets at Quicken Loans Arena.

NOTES: After his goal, van der Gulik has four goals and seven points over his last seven games... The Monsters finish the four-game season series against Texas with a record of 1-3-0-0... The Monsters are 8-12-0-0 against the West Division this season... The Monsters are 1-3-0-0 in April... The Monsters are 11-20-0-6 on the road this season... The Monsters finish the season-long seven-game road trip with a record of 1-4-0-2... The Monsters were 0-7 on the power play and Texas was 1-6 on Sunday.

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