Marlies trip up undermanned Monsters, 4-1
Nov. 25—The Monsters' current roster is more a collection of "Who's that?" instead of a collection of "Who's who" among the American Hockey League elite.
Eight players who would normally be with the Monsters are up with the Blue Jackets. Monsters coach Trent Vogelhuber could have used that as an excuse to explain his team losing, 4-1, to the Toronto Marlies on Nov. 25 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, but he did not go to that well.
"It doesn't matter," he said after the game. "I know we're looking at it under a microscope in our organization. Every team deals with it. Some other teams have just as many guys injured. It's not relevant. We have guys here who can win games for us."
The Marlies scored two empty-net goals, one with 1:16 to play and one with 17 seconds remaining.
Toronto scored on the power play 11:03 into the first period when left wing Adam Gaudette lifted the puck over the shoulder of Monsters goalie Paval Cajan for his 12th goal of the season. The puck hit under the crossbar and bounced out so quickly officials had to conduct a video review to make certain it was a good goal.
The Monsters tied the score when Emil Bemstrom, low in the left circle, took a backhand feed from Josh Dunne across the goal mouth and snapped it home to make it 1-1 with 18:30 left in the third period.
The problem for the Monsters was it took them too long to get going. They were sluggish throughout the first period. They had only four shots on goal in the first 20 minutes and just eight in the second period.
"Energy was low," Vogelhuber said. "Execution was poor. We were out-competed at the start.
"I talked to the coaches beforehand. It felt like a lack of energy leading up to the game, even this morning. I'm not sure why. We addressed it, and eventually they got to the proper level and tied the game up. But against a good team, you can't wait until the game is half over."
Cajan stopped 24 shots for the Monsters. Toronto goalie Joseph Woll made 20 saves.
"Our goaltending was awesome," Vogelhuber said. "Pav's on a groove. That's his third game in a row he played really well. His confidence is high. The game would have been over in the first period if it wasn't for him."
The Monsters won't have much time to sulk. Not long after the game ended they headed to the airport to fly to Toronto for a rematch with the Marlies on Nov. 26 at 4 p.m.
