A night after fights, Monsters top Senators

Monsters fans were hungry for fights on Dec. 22 after 68 minutes in penalties were dished out a night earlier when the Monsters trampled the Bellville Senators, 6-3.

Fans got no blood, not even any roughing penalties in the rematch. Instead, the crowd 9,079 on Chuck-A-Bear Night at The Q got a well-played 3-2 victory because the Monsters kept their composure. Coach John Madden will take the two points over winning a brawl any night.

“It was a low-tempered game compared to last night,” Madden said. “We need two points. We want to make the playoffs. We want to keep our focus.

“When stuff gets out of control, we’ll stick together (fighting) and do what we need to do, but our focus is on winning games and playing good hockey, and I thought for the most part we did that tonight.”

Special teams dominated the game.

Sam Vigneault scored with 18 seconds left in the first period on a shot from in front of the net to give the Monsters a 1-0 lead. That was the signal for fans to toss stuffed animals over the glass onto the ice. The stuffed animals were collected by the ice crew and will be given to needy children.

The Senators tied the game on a power play 4:25 into the third, and then the Monsters responded with a pair of power play goals, one by Nathan Gerbe on a redirect in front of Bellville goalie Filip Gustavsson and then one by Vitaly Abramov from the right side on a perfect feed from Adam Clendening with 7:39 left on the clock.

The Monsters (16-10-40) have won three straight games. Not coincidentally, they have scored on the power play in six straight games.

The power play was a struggle earlier in the season, but for now anyway it is operating full throttle.

“We have the personnel to have a good power play,” Madden said. “We were creating a lot of chances. They just weren’t going in. I’m sure we’ll hit a lull again. That’s just the way it works. Out PK (penalty kill) was good again tonight.”

Monsters goalie Matiss Kivlenieks stopped 27 of 29 shots. He gave up the power play goal and a redirected shot with 1:18 remaining when Bellville went with a sixth attacker.

The Monsters are off until Dec. 26, when they host the Rochester Americans at 7 p.m. at The Q.