In their fourth and final game of the 2009-10 regular season against the Texas Stars, the Lake Erie Monsters were shutout, 3-0, Saturday afternoon at Quicken Loans Arena. The loss comes less than 24 hours after the Monsters beat the Stars, 5-4, in overtime on home ice and drops the Monsters to 21-21-0-4. Texas improves to 24-14-3-4 with the win. The Monsters and Stars split the season series, going 2-2-0-0 in the four-game set.

The victory would come thanks to stellar goaltending and balanced scoring, as the Stars recorded a goal in each period and received a 26-save effort from goalie Todd Ford, who recorded his second shutout of the season.

Texas would net the only goal of the first period, as Perttu Lindgren recorded his seventh of the year midway through the first on the power play. Standing in the slot off to goalie Billy Sauer’s right, Lindgren tapped in a cross-crease feed from Andrew Hutchinson past Sauer’s blocker, giving the Stars the 1-0 lead. Mathieu Beaudoin picked up the secondary assist on the score.

Heading into the second up one, the Stars would push their lead to two at the 14:52 mark of the middle frame when Maxime Fortunus picked up his eighth of the year. With the puck on the circle, Fortunus eluded a Monsters defender and threw a puck toward the goal from the wall that found the back of the net through Sauer’s fivehole. Colton Sceviour and Sergei Korostin notched the assists on the goal.

Despite an 11-shot third period, the Monsters would come up empty in any comeback attempt. Lake Erie would watch the game get put in the books when Lindgren took advantage of a neutral zone turnover and fired the puck into an empty net with 17 seconds left to ice the game.

“I think they came out with a little more jump than we did, and Ford played very well,” said center Marty Sertich. “We did have chances, but penalties got us in trouble and that contributed to us running out of gas by the end of the game.”

Sauer finished the night making 26 saves on 28 shots.

The Monsters next game is slated for Friday, January 29th, when they host the Toronto Marlies at 7:30 p.m. at The Q. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (216) 420-0000, by visiting LakeErieMonsters.com or by visiting any Northern Ohio Discount Drug Mart.

Sights and Sounds

Head Coach David Quinn Interview   Marty Sertich Postgame Interview