Wolves nipped in shootout

Brad Thiessen played one of the most incredible games of the season for the Monsters when he stopped 40 shots in regulation March 23 against the Chicago Wolves, but that wasn’t enough to win the game.

The Monsters and Wolves were tied 1-1 at the end of 60 minutes and also at the end of a five-minute overtime in which Thiessen stopped five more shots.

The game went to shootout, and again “Brickwall Brad,” the backup goalie to Anton Forsberg was flawless. Markus Hannikainen scored first for the Monsters. Thiessen stoned Kenny Agostino and then Zac Dalpe gave the Monsters a 2-0 lead in the shootout. An instant after Thiessen gobbled up the shot by Andrew Agozzino to clinch the 2-1 final for Cleveland, his teammates jumped the wall in front of the bench and mobbed him.

Players skated to center ice and saluted the Quicken Loans Arena crowd before skating to the locker room spent and exhausted.

“All I can say is Thiessen,” Coach John Madden said. “In the third period, I thought he was spectacular. We ran out of gas a little bit but we held on. That’s a sign of a good team.”

Thiessen made 19 saves in the third period. The 46 shots on goal was the secondmost by a Monsters opponent this season. The Monsters gave up 48 shots to Grand Rapids on Nov. 25.

“I was a little nervous at the beginning,” said Thiessen, who last played on March 4 in a 7-3 loss to the Wolves. “Once the game gets going and pucks start firing, you kind of settle into the flow of the game.

“Sometimes as a goalie, you face periods like (the third). It’s nice to help the guys out, especially with the playoff race going on right now. We needed those points. To get them sets up a big weekend for us.”

The Monsters trail the Iowa Wild and Charlotte Checkers by one point for the final playoff spot in the Central Division. They play the Wild March 24 and 26 at The Q and then play Charlotte March 28 and March 30 at home.

The Wolves took a 1-0 lead into the first period. It was the fifth straight time the Monsters went scoreless in the first 20 minutes.

Dalpe tied the game 20 seconds into the second period on a low shot to the blocker side of Chicago goalie Jordan Binnington. He beat him low on the glove side in the shootout.

Hannikainen faked a forehand shot, then beat Binnington with a backhand shot under the crossbar in the shootout.