Gulls trip up Monsters in overtime

Mattiss Kivlenieks played one of his best games of the season in net March 24, and still his 37 saves weren’t enough to rescue the Monsters from their own mistakes.

The Monsters, before 15,290 fans — the secondlargest crowd of the season at The Q — took the San Diego Gulls to overtime but couldn’t finish the job and lost, 4-3, on a goal by Kiefer Sherwood in his first game with San Diego.

Kivlenieks was brilliant in the first period. He saved 15 of 16 shots and added 12 more stops in the second period.

The Gulls took a 3-2 lead 1:54 in the third period on a shot from the blue line by defenseman Jacob Larson.

Normally a goalie should stop such a shot, but Kivlenieks’ own teammate, Scott Savage, stood in front of the 21-year-old rookie and screened him on the play. Savage’s shoulders slumped when the red light went on.

“We had way too many turnovers in the first period,” Coach John Madden said. “We counted 22 unforced errors. When you play against a team like that that feeds off turnovers in transition, you get the result we got in the first period.”

The Monsters led, 1-0, on a goal by Alex Broadhurst and 2-1 on a second-period goal by newcomer Spencer Naas. The Monsters, wearing purple sweaters as a way to focus the night on cancer awareness, could not make the lead stick.

San Diego scored the next two goals and then Jordan Schroeder tied it 3-3 for the Monsters from low in the left faceoff circle with 3:18 left in regulation. The crowd roared, imploring the Monsters to rally for one more goal, but it was not to be.

Kivlenieks had the puck on his paddle and tried to pass to Terry Broadhurst in overtime, but they missed the connection and the Gulls pounced on it. After a flurry in front of the net, Kivlenieks dived to his left — too late to stop the shot by Sherwood 2:47 into the five-minute session.

The Monsters, 0-3 on this homestand, are now 21-347-3. The Gulls are 33-21-3-1. The two teams meet again at 3 p.m. March 25 at The Q.

“We had our looks,” Madden said. “I thought Kivlenieks played really well for us. He made some saves we haven’t seen him make this year.

“He was steady. He was probably the MVP of the game for us.”

The Monsters had 33 shots on net, but Madden wanted to see more. He estimated they missed the net on 20 shots.

“You have to pucks on the net, and that’s how you put panic in the other team’s game,” Madden said. “We let teams off the hook. We have guys that can shoot the puck. We just refuse to shoot it. We look for prettier plays.”

The 156 goals scored by the Monsters are 26 fewer than any team in the AHL Central.

“We had way too many turnovers in the first period. We counted 22 unforced errors. When you play against a team like that that feeds off turnovers in transition, you get the result we got in the first period.” Monsters coach John Madden