In their final contest of a three-game weekend, the Lake Erie Monsters dropped a 4-2 match to the Toronto Marlies Sunday afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum. With the loss, the Monsters drop to 22-23-0-4 while the Marlies improve to 18-22-5-4. The game was the eighth and final of the 2009-10 regular season series between the teams, and the Monsters finished the season with a 3-4-0-1 mark against the Marlies.

Christian Hanson opened the scoring for the Marlies, beating Monsters goalie Billy Sauer with his 12th of the season five minutes into the game. Ryan Stokes and Ben Simon assisted on the Hanson goal, which was a shorthanded tally.

But five minutes later, the Monsters would strike back, as Matt Ford recorded his 10th of the season at the midway mark of the first. Phil Dupuis and Travis Gawryletz assisted on the score. With the goal, Ford has recorded points in the past three consecutive games, as well as picking up at least a point in six of his past eight games. Recording an assist, Dupuis ran his point streak to three games, and the native of Laval, Quebec, has notched four points (1G, 3A) in that span.

A minute after the Monsters tied the game, Andre Deveaux put the Marlies back on top with his 13th of the season. Alex Berry and Juraj Mikus assisted on the goal, which would be the final tally of the first period and give the Marlies a 2-1 edge heading into the middle frame.

Less than four minutes after the second period began, Greg Scott pushed the Marlies lead to two with his sixth of the season. Tim Brent and Stefano Giliati picked up the assists on Scott’s goal.

At the 7:26 mark of the middle frame Brent would pad the Toronto lead to 4-1 with his fourth goal of the season. Picking up the assists were Viktor Stalberg and Scott.

But before the second period concluded, Lake Erie captain Brian Willsie put the Monsters back in striking distance with his 13th tally of the season, a goal that was assisted by Marty Sertich and Wes O’Neill. With the helper, O’Neill has picked up an assist in the past two games, also his first pair of contests back with the Monsters since returning from Lake Erie’s NHL affiliate, the Colorado Avalanche, on January 29th.

Down by two heading into the third, the Monsters wouldn’t be able to muster up any offense, and Marlies goalie Joey MacDonald would turn away all 10 shots Lake Erie put on net in the final 20 minutes to preserve the lead.

By game’s end, MacDonald had made 21 saves on 23 shots and Sauer turned away 30 of 34 shots faced.

The Monsters return to the ice on Wednesday to take on the Rochester Americans at 7:00 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena. Tickets are available and can be purchased by calling (216) 420-0000, by visiting LakeErieMonsters.com or by visiting any Northern Ohio Discount Drug Mart.