Monsters win in a shootout

No one knows how the last week of the AHL season will play out, but one thing that is certain is the Monsters will fight to the end – literally.

Two games remain for the defending Calder Cup champions after they beat Grand Rapids, 4-3, on April 9 in a shootout on Pucks and Paws day at Quicken Loans Arena before a crowd of 10,797 fans, plus about 500 dogs and one brave cat.

Zac Dalpe and Markus Hannikainen scored the shootout goals for the Monsters, now 38-28-4-4.

The Monsters and the Charlotte Checkers are locked in a heated battle for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central Division. Charlotte has three road games remaining – two in Grand Rapids and one in Chicago. The Monsters have home games with Manitoba on April 13 and 14 to play.

The Monsters have 84 points and Charlotte 83, but since they have a game in hand the Checkers are listed ahead of the Monsters in the standings.

“We check (the scoreboard) from time to time, but the honest thing is we just have to keep winning hockey games if they’re going to keep winning hockey games,” Coach John Madden said. “We just deal with the next game then deal with the one after that and at the end we’ll see what happens.”

The Monsters have been on an incredible run. They are 11-2 since losing to Texas on St. Patrick’s Day, and one of the loses was in overtime, which means the Monsters have picked up 23 of a possible 26 points.

The Checkers keep winning, too. They have won 13 of 16 games – three of them against Cleveland. A 4-1 Charlotte victory on March 30 at The Q ended a six-game winning streak for the Monsters.

The shootout over the Griffins typified the way the Monsters have played during the stretch. They fell behind, 2-0, 14 minutes into the game, but battled back with a first-period goal by Alex Broadhurst, one in the second by Vitaly Abramov and a short-handed goal by Jordan Maletta between the legs of Grand Rapids goalie Jared Coreau for a 3-2 lead at 15:01 of the third period.

The Maletta goal was retribution for what happened at 12:43 of the second period. Maletta crosschecked the Griffins’ Joe Hicketts, then Hicketts retaliated with a vicious slash to the back of Maletta’s legs.

Monsters’ left wing Brett Gallant swooped in and started punching Hicketts in the face. Hicketts never had a chance to shake his gloves off. Other skirmishes broke out.

Maletta got the last laugh. Not only did he score the goal. He beat Hicketts on his way to the Grand Rapids net.

“He’s a competitor and I’m a competitor,” Maletta said. “Whatever happened earlier, we got over it, but it felt nice to get that puck by him for the go-ahead goal at the time.”

The Griffins tied the game with 17.9 seconds left in regulation using a sixth attacker with Coreau off the ice. Still, the Monsters, playing for their playoff lives, did not falter.

After a scoreless overtime, Monsters goalie Anton Forsberg stopped Evgeny Svechnikov with a glove save to begin the shootout. Dalpe, the Monsters’ first shooter, beat Coreau low on the blocker side. Forsberg stopped Matthew Ford with a right pad save and the Hannikainen faked a forehand shot and flipped a backhand shot over Coreau’s left pad for the clinching goal.