Photo by Lake Erie Monsters / Ben Hall

Scoresheet

Three straight goals allowed in the second period were too much for the Lake Erie Monsters (25-21-2-7) to overcome, as the Monsters fell 4-2 to the American Hockey League-leading Texas Stars (33-13-4-4) before a Quicken Loans Arena crowd of 12,108 on Saturday night. Mike Sgarbossa scored for the Monsters in his return from a six-game call-up to the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche, and Karl Stollery also chipped in a power play goal. Paul Carey earned two assists, extending his point streak to seven games, tying a Monsters season-best.

After a scoreless first period, Carl Sneep’s shot from the top of the right circle at 2:32 of the second found its way through to beat Monsters goalie Calvin Pickard to give the Stars a 1-0 lead. They extended it to a 2-0 advantage when Jamie Oleksiak scored a power play goal at 8:28 of the middle frame. Oleksiak added a second power play goal at 11:01 of the second period to put Texas on top 3-0, before the Monsters found the back of the net with a power play goal of their own.

Following a Carey pass from the left point to the right, Stollery sent a wrist shot short-side to beat Texas goalie Jack Campbell at 16:51 of the second period. Carey and Geoff Walker assisted on Stollery’s fifth of the season.

Mike Hedden sent a Justin Dowling pass top shelf on a two-on-one rush to put Texas back on top by three, making the score 4-1 at 4:30 of the third period.

Pickard was relieved in net by Kent Patterson following the Stars fourth goal of the night; Pickard started three consecutive games over three nights this weekend.

Sgarbossa added a power play goal for the Monsters on a turnaround shot in front of the Texas net, with an assist to Carey, at 13:16 of the third period to make the score 4-2.

Pickard suffers the loss in net, stopping 30 of 34 shots in 44:30 of action; he is 14-12-5. Campbell stopped 29 of 31 shots in the win for the Stars, improving to 13-6-3.

The Monsters are back on the ice Tuesday when they host the Milwaukee Admirals at 7:00 PM.

NOTES: The Monsters finish the season series against Texas with a 2-1-0-1 record… The Monsters home record moves to 11-10-1-4… The Monsters were 2-4 on the power play, which puts the team on an 8-20 clip with the man-advantage… The Monsters record in the game after a shootout loss is now 10-8-0-3… The Monsters finished three-games-in-three nights, and have a record this season of 10-8-0-3 in games that are part of three-in-three sequences… The Monsters were 6-8 on the penalty kill, and are now 12-14 on the penalty kill over their last three games… Paul Carey’s two assists give him a seven-game point streak; he has five goals and nine points over his last seven games, and becomes the second Monster this season to accumulate a seven-game point streak… Andrew Agozzino also had a seven-game point streak from 12/13/12-12/28/12.

Game Photos

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