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The match-up also marked the first of many other things for the team. Ray Macias, Peder Skinner and Kyle Cumiskey all registered their first goals of the year and, with an assist on Skinner’s goal, Bryan Marshall recorded his first point as a professional.

The scoring started at 9:28 of the first, compliments of a Macias power play goal. Sneaking in from his spot at the point, Macias drove to the net, taking a Chris Mueller feed out of mid air and batting it past Hartford goalie Miika Wiikman. Chris Durno was credited with the second assist on Macias’ tally.

Five minutes after Macias put the Monsters up one, Peder Skinner, in his second game with the Monsters and in the AHL, scored his first goal of the season off a Chris Stewart rebound. Skating furiously into the Hartford zone, Stewart unleashed a slap shot that Wiikman kicked out with his pad right to the stick of Skinner, who pushed the biscuit into a yawning net. Marshall earned the secondary assist on the goal. Before the first period would close, the Wolf Pack would cut the Monsters lead in half on Greg Moore’s fourth goal of the season with 30 seconds remaining. Standing in front of the net, Moore would get two cracks at Bobby Sanguinetti’s point shot, putting the second one past Monsters goalie Jason Bacashihua.

Hartford would strike first in the second period when Brodie Dupont netted his third goal of the season at the 7:31 mark. Just more than four minutes later, Cumiskey would register his first of the season. Waiting for a feed from the blue line, Cumiskey would receive a pass from Phil Dupuis that would pin ball off a slew of skates in front of the net before finding its way to his stick. From the top of the point, Cumiskey would cradle the puck and rip a wrist shot past the glove of Wiikman to give the Monsters a temporary 3-2 lead. Durno would pick up his the secondary assist, his second of the game.

Just more than three minutes later, Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau tied the game with his seventh goal of the season. Standing in front of the net by himself, Parenteau’s stick became a magnet for a Patrick Rissmiller point shot that found its way through traffic in front of Bacashihua’s net. One-on-one with Bacashihua, Parenteau made the Monsters goalie flinch first, deking to the forehand and sliding the puck past the goalie’s outstretched glove.

Before the second period would end the Wolf Pack would take the lead. But this time, it would be for good. With 23 seconds left in the second, the puck literally bounced out to Sanguinetti, who would slap it towards the net and watch if flutter past Bacashihua, giving Hartford a 4-3 edge going into the third and final frame. Starting the third period with a man advantage, the Monsters were almost able to knot the game at four. Less than a minute in, Stewart would launch a slap shot from inside the faceoff circle that clanked the iron and went wide, leaving the Monsters down by a goal by mere inches.

Before the Monsters were able to muster up any more offense, Parenteau would score his eighth goal of the season and second of the game to ice the victory. On the power play and camped out to the right of Bacashihua, Parenteau wired a one-timer off a cross-ice feed from Rissmiller between the blocker of Bacashihua and the goal post for the fifth and final goal for the Wolf Pack on the night.

“We had a good start and got away from our game,” said Monsters head coach Joe Sacco. “It’s just a disappointing, frustrating loss.”

The Monsters will come back to The Q on Wednesday to face the defending Calder Cup champion Chicago Wolves for a 7:00 p.m. tilt.