Photo by Lake Erie Monsters / Ben Hall

Scoresheet

Mike Connolly put the Lake Erie Monsters (27-24-2-7) on the board 20 seconds into Thursday’s game, but the Peoria Rivermen (25-25-4-3) overcame the early deficit, defeating the Monsters 3-2 at Quicken Loans Arena. Thursday’s game followed a Monsters 2-0 shutout win over the same Peoria team on Tuesday at The Q. Andrew Agozzino led the way Thursday with a goal and an assist for the Monsters, giving him the team’s scoring lead with 41 points. The loss concludes an eight-game home stand for Lake Erie.

After a fight off the opening faceoff between the Lake Erie’s Daniel Maggio and Peoria’s Stefan Della Rovere, Connolly took a centering feed from Agozzino and buried the first goal of the game to give the Monsters a 1-0 lead 20 seconds in. The goal was Connolly’s seventh of the season, and was assisted by Agozzino and Luke Walker.

Peoria tied the game at 1-1 when Mark Cundari scored from the right circle on a five-on-three power play at 15:07 of the first period.

The Rivermen took their first lead 28 seconds into the second period when Derek Nesbitt one-timed a T.J. Hensick pass from the right circle past Monsters goalie Calvin Pickard, making the score 2-1 on the power play.

At 8:15 of the second period, Mike Sgarbossa found Agozzino open at the top of the Peoria crease, and Agozzino tapped home his 15th goal of the season on the power play, tying the score at 2-2. Markus Lauridsen also gathered an assist on the goal.

In the third period, Peoria scored the eventual game-winner at 7:37 when an Evgeny Grachev centering attempt deflected off Rivermen forward Trevor Lewis and over the goal line, making the score 3-2.

Pickard stopped 26 of 29 shots in net for the Monsters, and his record moves to 16-14-5 with the loss. Mike McKenna earned the win in net for Peoria, stopping 26 of 28 shots to improve to 12-10-1 on the season.

The Monsters are back in action Saturday night at 7:00 PM in Grand Rapids. The game can be heard live from Grand Rapids on AM 1220 WHKW.

NOTES: With a goal and an assist, Agozzino has 10 multi-point games on the season; the best such total for a Monsters player this season… Luke Walker’s first period assist gives him points in three straight games; he has a goal and three assists over his last three outings… Markus Lauridsen was even on the plus/minus for the evening, giving him 11 consecutive games without a minus rating… Pickard has started eight of the Monsters last nine games… The Monsters were 1-4 on the power play, and are now 12-45 on the power play over their last 11 games… The Monsters were 4-6 on the penalty kill in the game, and are now 4-8-0-0 when allowing multiple power play goals.

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