Monsters pull off Friday the 13th win over Moose in home opener

(1) Recap

The Moose played their home opener and 3rd game of the season on Friday night at the Bell-MTS Centre. The home club was dominant in the first, controlling play and taking a 19-7 edge in shots, and scoring the opening goal – a Julian Melchiori blast which found its way through traffic. the Monsters came right back in the second and did likewise, out-shooting the Moose 18-6 in the period, and tying the game early off a JC Lipon giveaway. The Monsters took a 2-1 lead on the PP, but the duo of Connor and Roslovic tied it just 33 seconds later, with Connor blazing down the left wing and sending a sweet cross-ice feed to Roslovic in the slot, who buried top right corner. Under a minute later, the Monsters took the lead back, with Hutchinson letting in a weak one – it appeared that he was cheating to his right, expecting a pass across, and instead, a weak shot slid through his legs. The Moose did tie it up at the start of the third, with JC Lipon sending a great stretch pass to Patrice Cormier, who deked backhand-forehand to tie the game at 3. But just 5 minutes later, the Monsters’ Joe Pendoza scored his second of the game, beating Hutchinson on his (right) glove hand off a two-on-one. The Moose weren’t able to mount much of a comeback, partially due to foolish penalties by Lipon and Lemieux in the final 10 minutes of the 3rd.

(2) Boxscores

Click here.

(3) Game Notes

Jack Roslovic: led Moose forwards with 4 shots on goal (at even strength), and 7 overall attempts (2 on the PP); he had 1 goal, was on the ice for 1 Moose goal, and none against
Kyle Connor: 4 shots on goal (3 ES, 1PP), 5 shot attempts; 1 assist, on the ice for 2 Moose goals, and none against
Sami Niku had an assist (secondary) on the Roslovic goal, was on the ice for one goal for and one against, and had 3 shot attempts (1 on net)
Michael Spacek had 2 shots on goal, and 3 overall attempts, and wasn’t on the ice for any goals for or against
Aside from the beautiful pass to Cormier, Lipon had a tough game; he and Jake Kulevich were the only Moose skaters who did not have a shot attempt on net;  he was on the ice for all 4 goals against (albeit one on the pk), and he took a slashing penalty
Brendan Lemieux had two shot attempts, a fight, and took an interference penalty; he was on the ice for one goal against
Julian Melchiori and Peter Stoykewych led the Moose in shot attempts with 6 each (but only 3/12 reached the net)
LW Jansen Harkins & LW Francis Beauvillier missed tonight’s game; both are day-to-day
D Nelson Nogier is out long-term with a shoulder injury
D Jan Kostalek, D Mark Flood, and LW Darren Kramer were healthy scratches
After winning in his last outing, Michael Hutchinson started his 2nd game in a row; Eric Comrie – who gave up 5 goals in the season opener in Grand Rapids, was the back-up

(4) Lines Combinations

Connor-Roslovic-Robinson
Lemieux-Sgarbossa-Spacek
De Leo-Cormier-Lipon
MacLise-Sutter-Appleton

Schilling-Stoykewych
Niku-Melchiori
Kulevich-Gotovets

Hutchinson
Comrie

(5) Audio