ROCKFORD, IL – In game two of the team’s first Calder Cup Playoff series since 2011, Cleveland’s Lake Erie Monsters defeated the Rockford IceHogs 5-1 on Thursday at the BMO Harris Bank Center in Rockford, IL to claim a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-five game Central Division Semi-Finals. With a victory in game three of the two teams’ first-round series, set for Saturday at 7:00 pm at Quicken Loans Arena, the Monsters can punch their ticket to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Rockford’s Ryan Hartman made it 1-0 IceHogs with a power-play goal at 5:45 of the opening frame, but the Monsters battled back to tie the game at one just 34 seconds into the middle period on an even-strength net-mouth scramble that was eventually forced home by Josh Anderson on feeds from Markus Hannikainen and Lukas Sedlak.