For the second time in a week, the Lake Eerie Monsters hosted the Toronto Marlies at Quicken Loans Arena. The first game was an extremely fast paced contest the Monsters really should have won. Twice the Monsters gave up two goals in less than a minute. That meant Toronto scored almost their entire total in two minutes of sixty!! Goalie Jason Bacashihua was looking for revenge after his tough outing.

This game started similar to the last, the Monsters opened the scoring 7 minutes into the contest with a goal by #25 Chris Stuart. This was his first professional goal!! A huge stop from point blank by Monster goalie Bacashihua at 7:54 in the first showed that he was here to play and would not be losing again to the first place Marlies. He was definitely looking to atone for the prior game miscues.

With less than three minutes remaining in the first period, #25 Chris Stewart got two minutes for hooking This turned out to be a bad penalty as Toronto immediately capitalized on it, evening up the scoring at 17:25 on a Power Play goal by Jay Harrison. So far Chris Stewart was directly involved in both goals, scoring for the Monsters and sitting in the penalty box on the Marlies.

Second period started out hot for the Monsters as Defenseman Ray Macias scored his first professional goal. Monsters were up 2-1. The made both goals on the Monsters side the first ever pro goal by both players. This was definitely a promising trend. Not to be outdone, Chris Stewart scored his second goal with 6:23 left in the second. Now with four goals on the board, Stewart was somehow involved in three of them. Toronto #47 Boyce got two minutes for hooking. The Monsters went on the power play and with 53 seconds left in the penalty, #17 T.J Hensick stood on the left side of the Marlies' goal, beat his stick on the ice, took the pass and SLAMMED the puck home giving the Monsters a 4-1 lead. What a fantastic second period for the Monsters!! The shots after two were 20-22 in favor of the Marlies. Luckily the scoreboard did not swing on the side of shot production. The Monsters could not have written a better script for this particular period.

The Marlies were not going down without a fight though, and had two primo scoring chances to open up the third period with less than a minute gone. Both shots were stopped by Bacashihua. He was on his game this evening, and needed to be. The pace of the third was furious. With four minutes gone by, you'd swear the game was almost over. Margeson took a penalty for hooking, putting the Marlies on the power play. Immediately, a giant scrum broke out in front of the Monsters goal, with Michell and Bernaise both picking up roughing penalties. The face off gave the puck to the Marlies, and they pressured Bacashihua big-time. Right after the penalty to Margeson ended, Lake Eerie 's Vernace got called for a tripping, putting the Marlies right back on the

power play. They capitalized roughly a minute into the penalty with Toronto's Robbie Earl credited with the goal, and with twelve minutes to go, the lead was cut to 4-2. The scrums continued in front of the net as the Marlies kept the pressure on. If the Monsters kept this up, they might yet again lose 5-4. The Marlies kept the pressure on. They grabbed possession on a center ice face-off and immediately sent a slap shot into the glove of Bacashihua. What a tale of two periods. The Monsters dominated period two only to be dominated in period three. That changed, however as Stewart notched a hat trick, scoring his third goal of the game. He was having himself quite the contest.

Margeson was having the opposite and took another penalty for holding. During a clear, the linesman took a puck to the head and play was stopped. While all this was going on, two opposing players were jawboning face to face and it sure looked like a fight was going to break out. The Average White Band jammed over the PA, people danced, and we all waited for the linesman, #41 to stop bleeding. Fortunately he ended up being ok. Play resumed with the Marlies still on the power play. A heavy slap was gloved by Bacashihua, then another and a puck through the crease, all failing to light the lamp.

Finally, Lake Eerie got some relief on a tripping penalty by #11 Newberry, of the Marlies. With 11 seconds to go in that penalty, #10 Robbie Earl also took a penalty, but the Monsters could not connect on a five on three. Toronto put the Monsters back on a five on three as #26 Sifers went to the box. Yet again a scrum broke out in front the Toronto net as things turned chippy. #8 McCleod ended up in the penalty box for roughing and got a ten minute misconduct. Toronto immediately scored by #23 Alex Foster, but it was too little too late. The game ended 5-3.

Stars of the game were #3 Ray Macias. Second Star was #28 Matt Hussey, and the star of the game, recording his first three goals of the season and registering a hat-trick, Chris Stewart!! The Monsters have really started to gel the past couple of games. Next game is Sunday, November 18 th at 5:00 P.M. If I were, you, I wouldn't want to miss it!!