3 hours Ago By Jeff Schudel
Thanksgiving Day turkeys were wandering around the farm singing “Gobble! Gobble!” without a care in the world the last time the Monsters lost a hockey game. Trey Fix-Wolansky and David Jiricek each scored on a slapshot early in the first period Nov. 29, and that was all the scoring the Monsters needed to send the Toronto Marlies back to Canada on the short end of a 2-0 final.
A crowd of 14,171 inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse watched the Monsters, 14-4-0-1, win a franchise-record 10th straight game and move into first place in the AHL North. They haven’t lost since Nov. 6 when they lost to Rochester, 4-2, in the FieldHouse.
“Another win, but I thought it was one of our poorer games,” Coach Trent Vogelhuber said. “I felt like we didn’t have our legs. It’s going to happen here and there.
Sometimes you need a goaltender to bail you out, which I think Sawzy did and special teams, so we won that battle.” “Sawzy” is Zach Sawchenko. Earlier on Nov.
29, the NHL Blue Jackets called up the Monsters’ primary goalie, Jet Greaves, to Columbus. Sawchenko stopped 33 shots to register the shutout and improve to 6-1 on the season. He made 10 saves in the first period, 12 in the second and 11 in the third.
#Monsters goalie Zach Sawchenko after shutting out the Marlies, 2-0, Friday night before 14,171 fans at the FieldHouse. "This is a special place to play. The fans are rockin' it on a Friday night.
You want to make big saves for them." pic.twitter.
com/jKgxfJ8HDc — Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) November 30, 2024 Toronto had two power plays. The Monsters killed off both of them. The Marlies played most of the last three minutes with an extra attacker after pulling their goalie.
Sawchenko and the defense in front of him turned aside every shot the Marlies took. “It was nice to get the bounceback win after the last game on Sunday,” Sawchenko said, referring to the Nov. 24 game with Milwaukee when the Monsters led, 4-0, fell behind, 5-4, but rallied to win, 6-5, in overtime with Sawchenko in net.
“The team bought in,” Sawchenko said. “There were a lot of big shot blocks, guys clearing pucks out. It’s funny.
Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn’t. Tonight it went my way, so obviously I’m pretty happy about that one.” Fix-Wolansky got things going for the Monsters when he ripped a laser on the power play from the top of the right circle 4:53 into the first period.
It was his 10th goal of the season. Less than a minute later, Jiricek sniped from the right point for his second goal in four games since being demoted from the Blue Jackets. Jiricek scored the game-winner in overtime against the Admirals on Nov.
24. Monsters 2, Marlies 0.
