Korpisalo helps Monsters to sweep Milwaukee

“That was a fun game to play. The boys battled hard. There were a lot of shots (in the first period), but I felt I was ready.” Monsters goaltender Joonas Korpisalo

Joonas Korpisalo was playing so infrequently as the Blue Jackets backup goalie that he might as well have worn his street clothes under his uniform to save time getting ready to go home when a game ended.

On Nov. 17, the Jackets sent Korpisalo, forward Sonny Milano and defenseman Gabriel Carlsson down to the Monsters because all three were getting dusty and rusty in Columbus.

Korpisalo, a huge part of the Monsters’ 2016 Calder Cup championship, arrived at Quicken Loans Arena the morning of Nov. 18 and was told he would start that night against the Milwaukee Admirals. He came within 27 seconds of a shutout. He didn’t get it, but he was superb in leading the Monsters to a 3-1 victory over the Admirals, stopping 32 shots along the way.

The Monsters, 7-4-2-1, strengthened their hold on second place, one slot ahead of the Admirals, with the win before 9,635 fans.

“I got the call to get down here to play a game and I was really happy about this,” the Finnish goalie said.

“I hadn’t played for a while (Nov. 7 against Nashville). I think I was ready to play.

“That was a fun game to play. The boys battled hard. There were a lot of shots (in the first period), but I felt I was ready.”

The Monsters were charged with four penalties totaling 11 minutes in the first period.

Defenseman Cameron Gaunce was handed a major boarding and a gamemisconduct 2:42 into the first period.

The misconduct penalty left the Monsters with five defensemen for more than 57 minutes.

It meant everyone else needed all all-out effort to skate off with the win.

“I thought Korpisalo played great,” Coach John Madden said.

“We had some penalties early, but I thought our penalty kill played well.”

The Admirals were held without a goal on six power play chances.

The game was scoreless until Miles Koules finally broke through at 4:21 of the second period from a shot low in the right circle. The one-timer was set up on a no-look pass from Sam Vigneault from behind the goal line near the right post.

Paul Bittner, who scored on the power play on Nov. 16 in a 5-3 victory over Milwaukee, rifled home his third tally of the season, all with the man advantage, on a shot from the left circle to the far post past Milwaukee goalie Juuse Saros. Saros was in goal in the Nov. 16 rematch. He played better than he did two nights earlier, but he wasn’t as sharp as Korpisalo.

Joe Pendenza finished off the scoring for the Monsters with an empty-net goal with 16 seconds remaining.