The Lake Erie Monsters started their three-in-three weekend road trip with a record-breaking performance on Friday night. The Monsters fired off five goals in the second period en route to a dominating 7-2 win in Grand Rapids. The victory set new franchise records for both wins in a season (35) and points (78). The five second-period goals and seven total goals in the game also both tied franchise highs.

The Monsters are now 35-25-3-5 and, with a Toronto loss in Syracuse on Friday night, are now tied with the Marlies for third place in the North Division.

Justin Mercier started the scoring for the Monsters, who outshot the Griffins 9-5 in the first period. His goal at 6:37 was assisted by Matt Ford and Julien Brouillette.

The first 20 minutes would end with the Monsters leading 1-0.

Then the fireworks started.

Ben Walter quickly increased the Monsters advantage at the start of the second period. The team captain scored just 50 seconds in the middle frame. Cameron Gaunce and Matt Generous assisted.

Travis Gawryletz put Lake Erie up 3-0 at the 4:15 mark of the second, scoring off helpers from David van der Gulik and Walter.

Tomas Tatar finally put Grand Rapids on the board with his goal at 9:07. Jamie Tardif and Derek Meech were credited with the assists.

Francis Pare cut the Lake Erie lead to 3-2 with his power play marker at 10:36 of the second.

Harrison Reed quickly responded, scoring unassisted on a breakaway at 11:38.

Then the line of Greg Mauldin, van der Gulik and Walter took over, scoring twice in the span of two minutes to essentially put away the Griffins.

Mauldin scored at 15:42 and 17:56 (power play), with both goals being assisted by the pair of van der Gulik and Walter.

Lake Erie finished the second period with a 6-2 lead after outshooting the Griffins 14-9.

Despite Grand Rapids outshooting Lake Erie 11-4 in the third, the Monsters' Julian Talbot solidified the final 7-2 scoresheet with his power play goal at 14:20 of the period, assisted by Luke Walker and Gaunce.

Jason Bacashihua was in net for the Monsters, stopping 23 of the 25 shots he faced. Griffins netminder Jordan Pearce had 20 saves on 27 shots.

Van der Gulik and Walter finished with three assists apiece, both tying a season high for a Monsters player.

For van der Gulik, it was his fifth multi-point and second three-assist performance of the year. Walter recorded his 10th multi-point and third three-assist game.

With two assists in the win, Gaunce recorded his second multi-point game of the season and second in the last three games. Friday marked Mauldin's first multi-goal and fourth multi-point game of the season.

The Monsters will now move on to play in Milwaukee on Saturday and Peoria on Sunday before returning home to Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday to host Rochester.