As the old adage goes, “You control your own destiny.” That statement could not be more true for the Lake Erie Monsters and the three games they will play in as many days this weekend.

Friday kicks off the first of the three highly critical contests with a home game against a North Division foe, the Toronto Marlies. Currently in seventh place in the North, the Marlies trail Lake Erie by just three points. After a Saturday match at Quicken Loans Arena against San Antonio, Lake Erie travels to Toronto to wrap up the weekend with a 4:00 p.m. game at Ricoh Coliseum against the Marlies Sunday.

Depending on what the other teams in the division do this weekend, the Monsters have the possibility of moving as high as third place or dropping as low as seventh place in the North Division.

In playing the Marlies, Lake Erie takes on a formidable foe. Although Toronto currently sits in last place in the North Division and Western Conference, the Monsters hold a 2-3-0-1 record against the Marlies this season. One of Lake Erie’s wins against Toronto this season – a 7-0 rout of the Marlies on December 27th – set a franchise record for the largest margin of victory.

Of the three regulation losses to Toronto this season, the Monsters endured two one-goal defeats on top of dropping another game in the shootout to the Marlies. Sunday’s game in Toronto is the eighth and final match of the 2009-10 regular season between the teams.

In the middle of the two-game set with the Marlies, the Monsters will take on the San Antonio Rampage, a match slated for 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Q. In their only game against the Rampage this season – October 13th at Quicken Loans Arena, also the team’s fourth game of the season – the Monsters dropped a 4-1 contest. But much has changed since then, as the Monsters were 1-3-0-0 at that point of the season and now find themselves at .500, with a mark of 21-21-0-4.

After the three-game weekend, the Monsters return to action on Wednesday, when they take on the Rochester Americans at 7:00 p.m. at The Q.