After establishing a franchise-high seven-game home winning streak with a 3-2 overtime victory over Rockford on Friday, the Lake Erie Monsters saw their streak snap with a 3-2 loss in a rematch with the IceHogs on Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena in front of 8,570.

Despite the loss, the Monsters have won 11 of their last 16 games (11-4-0-1), while they are 32-25-3-5 overall this season.

Like Friday’s game, Rockford (25-29-4-4) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. At 3:25 of the opening period, Ben Smith scored off a pass from Rob Klinkhammer. Jeff Taffe also assisted.

The IceHogs carried their one-goal lead into the first intermission, while they outshot the Monsters 18-11 in the opening 20 minutes.

Rockford built a 2-0 lead when Klinkhammer scored a shorthanded tally off an assist from Evan Brophey just 2:01 into the middle frame.

Lake Erie answered at 10:11 of the period, when Justin Mercier tried a wrist shot from the left circle and buried his own rebound to make the score 2-1. Joel Chouinard assisted for his second helper in as many games.

The Monsters evened the score when David van der Gulik slammed home the rebound of a Greg Mauldin shot at 17:23 of the period. Steve Oleksy, who was playing in just his second game with Lake Erie, also assisted. Mauldin’s assist came as his seventh point (3G, 4A) in as many games, while van der Gulik’s helper marked his sixth point (1G, 5A) in his last five games.

The score was 2-2 after two periods, with Lake Erie posting 15 shots compared to seven by Rockford in the middle frame.

In the third period, Brophey snapped the deadlock to put the IceHogs ahead 3-2 at the 1:59 mark. In an odd-man rush, Brophey entered the Lake Erie zone on the left wing and snapped a shot into the near side of the net. Mathis Olimb and Garnet Exelby assisted.

Unable to mount a third-period comeback , the Monsters were handed their first loss on home ice since falling to San Antonio in a shootout back on February 5th (5-4).

Lake Erie recorded 12 shots in the third period and held Rockford to just four in the stanza.

Jason Bacashihua stopped 26 of 29 shots faced, marking just his second loss in his last nine starts.

Rockford goaltender Hannu Toivonen went 36-for-38 in the win.

The Monsters will be idle until Friday, March 11th, when they travel to Hamilton for a 7:00 p.m. faceoff with the Bulldogs.

Three Stars: 1. RFD Brophey (GW goal, 1 assist); 2. RFD Toivonen (36 saves); 3. LE van der Gulik (1 goal)

David Quinn Postgame Interview