A monster night from Lake Erie forward Phil Dupuis helped give the Monsters a 6-2 win over the Rochester Americans Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena, as the flashy French Canadian netted his first hat trick of the season in the victory. The team also received multi-point efforts from forwards T.J. Hensick (3A), Ryan Stoa (2G) and Darren Haydar (1G, 1A) in the win, which improved the team’s record to 11-17-0-3. With the defeat, Rochester’s record dropped to 20-10-2-0. Coming into the game, the Americans were second in the North Division.

Nick Tarnasky began the scoring for the Americans, recording his third goal of the season seven minutes into the game. Skating behind the net with the puck, Michal Repik threw a backhand pass through Tyler Weiman’s crease that Tarnasky deflected past Weiman’s blocker side. Chris Taylor picked up the second assist on the goal.

But the Monsters would waste no time tying the game, as Dupuis recorded his fifth goal of the season less than three minutes after Tarnasky’s score. Carrying the puck out of his zone, Rochester defenseman Michael Caruso had the puck stripped at the blue line by Dupuis, who carried the puck down the right side and blew a wrist shot past the blocker of Americans goalie Ryan Mior. The score would stay tied at one for less than three minutes, however, as Evgeny Dadonov put the Americans up 2-1 at the 12:42 mark of the first. Standing to the left of Weiman, Dadonov took a cross-ice feed from David Schulz, waited until Weiman went down, and wired a wrist shot to the top corner past Weiman’s blocker. Ernie Hartlieb recorded the secondary assist on the score.

Down 2-1 heading into the second, Dupuis struck again, netting his sixth of the year at the 12:54 mark of the middle frame on the power play. With the puck on the half wall, Marty Sertich put a pinpoint pass to defenseman Brian Fahey who threw the puck toward the Rochester net from the point. When Fahey’s shot handcuffed Mior and the puck fell to the ice, Dupuis was right in front of the Americans net, putting the rebound past Mior on his backhand.

After the Dupuis goal, the final seven minutes of the second period would go by without another score, and the Monsters would have 20 minutes of regulation time left to determine their fate.

Just 1:34 into the third, Haydar gave the Monsters their first lead of the game with his 11th goal of the season. On the half wall, Haydar worked a give-and-go with Hensick, sliding the puck to Henisck at the goal line and heading straight to the net. Taking a pass back from Hensick in the low slot, Haydar wired a wrist shot past Mior’s glove, putting the Monsters up, 3-2, on the power play. Tom Preissing recorded the second assist on the goal.

Then, at the 8:51 mark of the third, Hensick’s playmaking skills would help the Monsters pad their lead by two. Coming in on a three-on-two break, Hensick found Stoa trailing the play and hit him with a perfect pass between the hash marks. With the puck on his stick, Stoa found the top corner of the net with a wrist shot past Mior’s glove.

Stoa would strike again, less than eight minutes after his first goal of the game, at the 16:14 mark of the third, putting the Monsters up 5-2 with his 10th of the year. Cutting across the slot with the puck, an Americans defenseman poke checked the puck from Hensick and into the slot. Trailing the play, Stoa fired a wrist shot past the low blocker of Mior. Haydar picked up the second assist on the goal, the Monsters third power play tally of the evening. With the assists, Hensick picked up his second three-point game of the season and third multi-point game of the year. Of the past nine games, Hensick has recorded points in eight of them, tallying 13 points (3G, 10A) in that span. Stoa has recorded six goals in the past seven games, and recorded his second multi-point game of the season.

Haydar leads the Monsters with seven multi-point games and has put up 11 points (5G, 6A) in the past nine games.

With Mior pulled in favor of a sixth attacker for parts of the final six minutes, the Americans were unable to penetrate the Monsters defense, and Dupuis netted the Monsters second hat trick of the season with an empty net tally with one second left in regulation. The hat trick gave Dupuis his fourth multi-point game of the season, and his fifth point (4G, 1A) in the past two games. It was also the first game of the season Dupuis recorded three points and the first time he recorded a multi-point game in consecutive games. “We feel really good right now,” said Dupuis. “Rochester had 20 wins before this game and it was huge for us, and it was a boost for us. This game gave us a lot of confidence and pretty much everyone is happy right now and we’re looking forward to the next few games.”

The Monsters return to the ice on Saturday, December 26th, to take on the Toronto Marlies at 7:30 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.

Sights and Sounds

Head Coach David Quinn Interview   Phil Dupuis Postgame Interview