Shorthanded Monsters bury IceHogs

Winning while playing shorthanded took on a new meaning for the Monsters on Feb. 27 in their first of back-to-back games with Rockford at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Normally shorthanded means playing with four players for two minutes while killing off a penalty, but the Monsters were shorthanded by four players on the bench and still beat the IceHogs, 6-3, led by two power play goals from Trey Fix-Wolansky and 27 saves by Mattis Kivlenieks.

Hockey teams traditionally dress 12 forwards and six defensemen plus two goalies. The Monsters started the night with only 10 forwards, and before the first period ended they lost right wing Nick Lappin to injury when he went hard into the boards. Defenseman

Dillon Simpson was also injured early, leaving Coach Mike Eaves with nine forwards and five defensemen.

And guess what? The Monsters get to do it all over again on Feb. 28 when they meet the IceHogs for a rematch at 1 p.m. at the FieldHouse.

“With only having nine guys, yeah, it’s tough,” said right wing Zach Jordan, who scored his first goal of the season at 11:42 of the second period for a 3-1 Monsters lead. “We were a little low-manned, but when you’re out there and you get into a rhythm, everybody’s going. Everybody’s chipping in.

“It might be a little tiring tomorrow to play so quickly back-to-back, but I think we’ll be able to battle through it and keep playing for each other. I think that was the main thing that helped us tonight.”

Jordan’s goal typified the heads-up way the Monsters played to raise their record to 2-3-1. He was sent off the ice for tripping at 9:35 of the second period. He popped out of the penalty box when his two-minute sentence expired, headed toward the IceHogs net, got a perfect feed from Evan Polei just inside the blue line and, seven seconds after his penalty ended, finished the play with a shot inside the right circle.

Lappin scored his first goal of the season at 3:04 and Brett Gallant made it 2-0 Monsters four minutes later.

Tyler Sikura dug out a rebound from the pads of Rockford’s overmatched goalie Collin Delia and flicked it home with 1:43 left in the middle period for a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes.

Fix-Wolansky got both his power play goals in the third — the first on a one-timer from the top of the left circle off a superb tape to tape pass from Gavi Bayreuther.

“We were underdogs in terms of numbers on the bench and the guys rose to the occasion,” Eaves said. “It’s really fun to be a part of that. The guys deserve a lot of credit. They played an intelligent game. They played hard when they had to.

“We got some big saves from Kivvy and guys stepped up and scored tonight. All those things are a positive for us.”

Kivlenieks is expected to start against the IceHogs again on Feb. 28. The game Feb. 27 was his first of the season with the Monsters. He had spent time on the Blue Jackets taxi squad and backed up Joonas Korpisalo in Columbus, but did not play a game this season until he faced the IceHogs.