A Quicken Loans Arena crowd of 10,202 – the second largest of the season and largest since opening night - witnessed Jake Newton scoring his first goal of the season for the Lake Erie Monsters (7-9-1-1), coming with 2:17 remaining in the third period to secure a 3-2 victory over the Peoria Rivermen (9-7-1-1) on Saturday night.

With the win, the Monsters have a season-high four-game unbeaten-in-regulation streak. David van der Gulik registered a goal and an assist, giving him a team-leading seven multi-point games on the season, and six in his last seven games played. Cedrick Desjardins stood on his head in goal, turning away a Monsters season-high 38 shots in the game.

van der Gulik scored the game’s first goal with 48 seconds left in the first period when he slapped in an Evan Brophey rebound to give the Monsters a 1-0 lead. Greg Mauldin also assisted on van der Gulik’s team-leading sixth goal of the season.

With the Monsters on a power play, Hugh Jessiman snapped a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to beat Peoria goalie Ben Bishop at 6:15 of the second period, making the score 2-0 in favor of the Monsters. Jessiman’s fifth of the season was assisted by Stefan Elliott and Luke Walker.

As Jessiman’s goal was being announced over the PA system at The Q, Peoria’s Brett Sterling received a pass in the slot from former Monster T.J. Hensick, and fired his 11th goal of the season into the back of the net to pull the Rivermen to within one, making the score 2-1.

Sterling tied the game at 2-2 for Peoria at 5:10 of the third period when he batted a rebound out of mid-air over a sprawled-out Desjardins. Hensick and Derek Nesbitt assisted on Sterling’s second of the game. Over the two games this week between the Monsters and Rivermen, Sterling accounted for three of Peoria’s five goals. He has 12 tallies on the season.

In the final moments of the third period, Sterling turned a puck over to van der Gulik on the right wing boards in the Monsters offensive zone. van der Gulik shifted to his forehand, found a streaking Newton open in the left circle, and Newton wasted no time in snapping a puck by an outstretched Bishop with 2:17 remaining to make the score 3-2. The goal was his first of the season and first as a Monster. Mauldin also assisted on the goal, his second helper of the night.

Desjardins turned away 38 of 40 shots and improved his individual record to 4-2-1. Bishop suffered the loss, stopping 22 of 25 shots in falling to 8-5-0.

Next up for the Monsters: a date with the Hamilton Bulldogs Friday night at 7:30 PM at Quicken Loans Arena. All of the action can be heard live on ESPN 850 WKNR.

NOTES: The Monsters victory snaps Peoria’s season-high four-game winning streak… David van der Gulik leads the Monsters with 17 points in 13 games; he leads the team with six goals and 11 assists… van der Gulik has seven multi-point games on the season, and has at least a point in eight of his last nine games played… Hugh Jessiman has goals in back-to-back games, and is tied with Evan Brophey for second on the Monsters with five markers on the season… Greg Mauldin is on a four-game point streak during which he has a goal and five assists in all… Stefan Elliott has assists in back-to-back contests… With Newton’s game-winning tally, the Monsters improve to 4-0-1-0 when a defenseman scores a goal… The Monsters play two of their next three games at home before a string of six straight games away from Quicken Loans Arena.