Two of the top goaltenders in the American Hockey League matched each other save-for-save for 65 minutes, but in the end, the Lake Erie Monsters (32-27-3-6) fell 1-0 in a shootout to the North Division-leading Toronto Marlies (37-22-4-3), extending the Monsters winless streak to five games, before a crowd of 10,765 at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena. Lake Erie’s Cedrick Desjardins and Toronto’s Ben Scrivens, second and third in the AHL in goals against average respectively, combined to stop 66 shots in a scoreless regulation and overtime period. The game is the 12th straight for the Monsters that has been decided by one goal.

In regulation time, each team had one power play; the Monsters lone man-advantage game inside six minutes remaining in the third. However, Toronto’s top-ranked penalty kill unit thwarted the Monsters only power play, eventually forcing overtime. Desjardins stopped 10 shots in the first period, and nine shots in each of the second and third periods to keep Toronto off the board.

In overtime, the Monsters outshot the Marlies by a 4-1 margin, but Scrivens provided some late-game highlight-reel saves of his own to force a shootout.

Toronto’s Joe Colborne and Josh Engel each scored on Desjardins in the shootout, while Scrivens turned away all four Monsters shooters to secure the second point for the Marlies.

Desjardins stopped 29 of 29 shots in the game, and his record moves to 12-9-4 with the shootout loss. Scrivens stopped 36 shots for Toronto, and he improves to 20-14-1.

The Monsters conclude their three-game homestand on Tuesday night when they welcome the Texas Stars to Quicken Loans Arena for a 7:00 PM game. All of the action can be heard on ESPN 850 WKNR.

NOTES: The Monsters finish the 10-game season series against the Toronto Marlies with a record of 4-4-0-2… All-time, the Monsters are now 21-16-1-4 against the Marlies… The Monsters are 0-2-1-2 over their current five-game winless streak; their last victory came on 3/11 in San Antonio… Over the 12-game one-goal game streak, the Monsters are 5-2-1-4… The Monsters have played 38 one-goal games and are 20-9-3-6 in one-goal games… The Monsters have been shut out 10 times this season; they were previously shut out by the Marlies this season on 10/16/11 in Toronto… The Monsters have three goals in their last four games… The Monsters play the Texas Stars in three of their next four games; they are 1-0-0-0 against Texas this season.