With the score tied 1-1 early in the second period on Friday, five unanswered Griffins goals led to the Lake Erie Monsters (27-25-2-2) falling in Grand Rapids (22-21-5-4) by a 6-1 score. It was the middle game of a three-in-three weekend for the Monsters, who were coming off a win over Hershey at home on Thursday.

Grand Rapids’ Chris Conner scored the game’s first goal on a shot from the top of the right circle through traffic at 9:49 of the opening period.

Lake Erie’s Greg Mauldin found the rebound from a Patrick Rissmiller shot at 13:55 of the first period, and beat Griffins goalie Ty Conklin for his 11th goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1. Evan Brophey also assisted, sending the teams into the first intermission all tied up.

It would be all Grand Rapids from there.

Joakim Andersson and Chris Minard added goals for the Griffins in the second period to give Grand Rapids a 3-1 lead after two periods of play.

Doug Janik made it a 4-1 lead for Grand Rapids on a shot from the center of the Monsters blue line at 6:01 of the third period. Minard scored twice more in the third for Grand Rapids to extend the lead to 6-1, the game’s final score.

Cedrick Desjardins suffered the loss in net; he is now 9-6-1 after stopping 34 of 40 shots. Ty Conklin is 2-0-0 in net after stopping 17 of 18 Monsters shots.

The Monsters are back in action Saturday night in Rochester at 7:35 PM, and all the action can be heard on AM 1220 WHKW.

NOTES: The Monsters fell to 0-3-0-0 in games played at Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena this season, and were outscored 14-1 in games in Grand Rapids… The Monsters finish the regular season series with Grand Rapids with a record of 2-4-0-0… Cameron Gaunce and Brad Malone saw their three-game assist streaks snapped in the loss… The Monsters are now 1-3-0-0 in the second games of three-in-three stretches so far this season… The Monsters are 12-12-0-0 against the North Division in 2012-12.