The Lake Erie Monsters snapped a six-game losing skid with a 4-3 shootout victory on the road over the Houston Aeros Thursday night. The game marked the 14th consecutive one-goal game for the Monsters, and the 40th one-goal decision of the season; a new team record, breaking last season’s 39 one-goal games. It was the third straight shootout – and fourth in the last five games - and the 12th of the season overall for Lake Erie.

David van der Gulik struck first for the Monsters, tipping home a Cameron Gaunce back-door pass at 8:41 of the first period with the Monsters on the power play. Patrick Rissmiller also assisted on van der Gulik’s 10th goal of the campaign.

The Aeros tied the game at 1-1 just 25 seconds later, as Nick Palmieri tipped a Drew Bagnall point blast by Monsters goalie Cedrick Desjardins.

Karl Stollery scored the Monsters second power play goal of the game- his first professional tally- with just under 30 seconds remaining in the first period on a snapshot from the top of the left circle. Barry Goers and Peter MacArthur assisted on the goal, which gave the Monsters a 2-1 lead heading into the locker room after the first period.

Just 1:13 into the second period, with the Aeros on the power play, a series of crisp passes around the offensive zone resulted in Jon DiSalvatore, Houston’s leading scorer, tapping a puck over the line from in-close to tie the game at 2-2.

Mike Connolly was the beneficiary of an Aeros defensive zone turnover at 11:17 of the second period. Connolly found an errant outlet pass in front of the Houston net, and fired a puck top-shelf to get the Monsters a 3-2 lead at the end of the second. The goal was unassisted, and gives him goals in back-to-back games.

Kris Fredheim tied the game for Houston with a power play blast in the third period at the 14:56 mark; a goal that forced overtime, and eventually a shootout.

Ryan Stoa and van der Gulik scored in the shootout portion for the Monsters, while Desjardins stopped all four Houston Aeros shooters, securing the win and the two points.

Desjardins is now 13-9-5 after stopping 24 of 27 shots. Matt Hackett is 17-14-5 after stopping 25 of 28 in the loss for Houston, who is winless in five games.

The Monsters last road trip of the season continues Saturday night against the Texas Stars at 8:05 PM. All the action can be heard on AM 1220 WHKW.

NOTES: Stollery’s first professional goal makes the Monsters 12-2-2-1 when a defenseman scores a goal; he has points in back-to-back contests… The Monsters totaled 25 penalty minutes in the game, and are now 10-13-1-1 when they have 20 or more penalty minutes… the Monsters had not won a shootout since 3/3/12… In the Monsters string of 14-straight one-goal games, eight have been decided by a shootout… The Monsters finish the regular season series against Houston 1-2-0-1, and improve to 5-4-0-3 all-time against the Aeros.