Jimmie Perkins came up with a huge short handed goal to seal the win (photo: Monsters)
By Eddie Graveline, Glovedropper.com
After a solid shutout win over the San Diego Gulls on Friday night, the Fresno Monsters went into Saturday's game with the opportunity to advance into the second round of the WSHL playoffs. They knew that San Diego wouldn't let them have it easily, but the Monsters' persistence paid off with a 5-3 win in front of a very pleased crowd at Selland Arena.
Ben Conroy opened the scoring with a short handed goal in the first period. He poked the puck forward off of a face off, then won the race to it and beat San Diego's goalie 1-on-1. Conroy isn't one of the players who grabs a lot of headlines, but he's been one of the best two-way forwards on the team for the entire season. He's been counted on a lot to kill penalties, take important defensive zone face offs and shut down the other teams' top lines. He's chipped in on offense quite a bit too, but it was great to see him get a big goal early in the game.
All was quiet in the nets until San Diego tied the game at one apiece, 5:36 into the second period. But the Monsters answered back with a three-goal flurry in the final three minutes of the period. Don Coyle scored a power play goal off a nice feed from Jouni Elo at 17:00. Cody Osburn threw a wrist shot from the corner to the far side of the net on a play that was set up by Jimmie Perkins and Ben Conroy. Alex Johansson added one more with 16 seconds left in the period. He was set up by Jimmy Bashara and Justin Wilmers.
The Monsters appeared to be feeling pretty confident with their lead as the third period progressed, but San Diego almost made them pay. The Gulls scored twice to make it a one-goal game with over two minutes left on the clock and the vibe in the building shifted from celebratory to tense very quickly. Jimmie Perkins came up huge for the Monsters, though, scoring short handed at 18:14 and giving the them the insurance goal they needed.
Matt Anderson played in goal for the Monsters and did a good job of keeping them in the game. The Gulls didn't register nearly as many shots as the Monsters, but the ones they did put on net came in bunches and there were several times when Anderson had to make big saves with a lot of traffic in front of his crease.
As I mentioned in the game report from Friday night, San Diego is the kind of team that keeps its opponents honest. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they were one of my favorite teams to watch this season. They came to play in every single game and, although things got chippy at times, and there were a few fights, they weren't the kind of team that resorted to a lot of cheap shots. They played the games the right way and were a great opponent all season. Their starting goalie, Alex Corbin, was one of the most entertaining players in the league, in my opinion. He's a small goalie that always faced a lot of shots, but he fought for every save and was ferocious in defending his crease. The bottom line is that the Monsters wouldn't have had the kind of season they have so far without great opponents and fans should be looking forward to seeing more battles with San Diego next year.
The Monsters will host the divisional finals next weekend at Selland Arena. Idaho beat Phoenix last night, but Phoenix won in overtime tonight. The entire series, and the Monsters' next opponent, depends on what happens in the third and final game tomorrow. Stay tuned for more playoff news and plan on being at Selland Arena next Sunday at 7:05 PM.
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