Fighting tooth-and-nail to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, the Lake Erie Monsters will have to emerge with two wins this weekend should they wish to stay in contention for the Calder Cup.

But the task is not a small one by any means. The Monsters weekend – which consists of a pair of home games – begins Friday, when the team welcomes the Western Conference’s best team, the Hamilton Bulldogs, to The Q. With a 44-15-3-5 mark, the Bulldogs lead the West with 96 points and have already clinched a berth in the 2009-10 Calder Cup playoffs.

A large part of the Bulldogs success rests on the shoulders of the men between the pipes. Hamilton goaltenders Cedrick Desjardins and Curtis Sanford are ranked first and second in the AHL in goals against average as Desjardins leads the league with a 1.93 GAA and Sanford is not far behind with a 2.03 goals against.

On top of goaltending, the Bulldogs have the AHL’s best team defense, yielding just 2.2 goals per game as well as allowing the opposition an average of less than 26 shots per game, which is the second fewest in the league.

If the goaltending and team defense didn’t pose enough of a challenge for the Monsters, the Bulldogs offense will definitely create even more problems. Averaging 3.3 goals per game, Hamilton has the league’s fourth-best offense and is led by forward Brock Trotter, who is sixth in the AHL scoring race with 64 points (28G, 36A).

Of Lake Erie’s four remaining home games after Friday, the team will face the Abbotsford Heat in three of them, including a tilt with the Heat Saturday. Recently, the Monsters dropped a 5-3 contest against Abbotsford on March 13th in British Columbia. To date, the Monsters are 1-3-0-1 against the Heat in the 2009-10 regular season.

Both games this weekend begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Monsters flagship radio station, ESPN 850 WKNR.  Listen Live on ESPN 850 WKNR | Watch here via AHL Live