by Fresno Monsters

MONSTERS WEEKLY — Fresno Monsters Hockey

WEEKEND RECAP

The Monsters hosted the Fairbanks Ice dogs this past weekend in a 3 game set. Fresno coming off a sweep of first place Wenatchee in Washington, looked to continue their great play back on home ice. Fresno wore special Children’s Hospital jerseys on Friday and Saturday nights, which they auctioned off in between periods of both games.

On Friday night, both teams played to a 2-2 tie after one period. Dan Sherer and Matt Salituro scored both of the Monsters goals. In the second period Fairbanks began to pull away scoring 3 times in the second and adding 2 more in the third before Troy Grahl would record his first goal as a Monster late in the third period. 4,865 fans would see Fairbanks take game one by a score of 7-3.

Saturday night the fans would flock to Selland Arena again as 4,887 fans attended night two of the Children’s Hospital of Central California weekend. Fresno fell behind early as the Ice Dogs scored 2 times in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Fairbanks would make it 3-0 early in the 2nd period before Ian Janco would get Fresno on the board with his third goal of the season. Fairbanks would answer back with 2 goals of their own to make the score 5-1. However, the Monsters would not quit. Dan Sherer and Tyler Shipstad would each record a goal in the second period to make the score 5-3 after 2 periods of play.

Fresno started the third period with a furious effort to score the next goal but the Ice Dogs would be the team to notch the next number on the scoreboard scoring the last 3 goals of the game and go on to win by a final score of 8-3.

Game 3 of the three game set would move to Gateway Ice Center for a Sunday evening contest. Fresno would send the message early that they came to play. The Monsters came out with a very physical type of hockey and it would pay off about 10 minutes into the first period when Kyle Sucher would get Fresno on the board 1-0. The Monsters play and lead would continue through the second period, and just :51 seconds into the third period of play Matt Salituro would score his 9th goal of the season giving Fresno a 2-0 lead. Fairbanks would answer back with just 6 minutes left in the game bringing the score to 2-1 and then tied the game 2 minutes later on a fluke goal that bounced of the glass behind the Fresno’s goaltender, then bounced off a Monsters player’s head and right to a Fairbanks player standing in front of the net for an easy tap in. That would prove to be the luck Fresno would have on Sunday as the Ice Dogs would go on to win the game 3-2 in overtime.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Fresno will play host to the Kenai River Brown Bears this weekend in another 3 game set. All games will be played at Gateway Ice Center on Marks Ave. just North of Clinton Ave. Friday and Saturday the puck will drop at 4:05 p.m. and Sunday’s game will start at 10:15 a.m.

Tickets are available at the Selland Arena box office or Ticketmaster.com Watch for a KRL article on the Monsters this weekend!

Check out the Monsters home games on their KRL event page and learn even more on their website. Watch for some more Fresno Monsters articles and videos coming this season and recaps each Wednesday when they have a game.