The Manitoba Moose score four goals in the second period to beat the Monsters at The Q, 6-3.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Monsters forgot how to play defense in the second period Friday night. A victory slipped through their gloves because of it.Manitoba scored four goals in the second in rallying for a 6-3 conquest at The Q.
The Monsters (3-5-0-1) have dropped four of their past five games that ended in regulation. They squandered leads of 2-0 and 3-1.
The Moose (5-2-0-0) has won three in a row.
"We looked like world beaters for 25 minutes," Lake Erie coach David Quinn said. "Then we stopped doing what we're supposed to do. We gave up odd-man rush after odd-man rush. The mistakes we made were of epic proportions."
Both teams played the first of three games in three days. Lake Erie will be in Toronto today while Manitoba faces Grand Rapids. Lake Erie and Manitoba return to The Q for a Sunday afternoon tilt.
After an uneventful first period, the Monsters swarmed the Moose early in the second. Center Mark Olver delivered a laser off the pipe from the left side at 2:17. He beat goalie Tyler Weiman, who played the previous three seasons with Lake Erie and is the franchise's all-time leader in most of the significant goaltending categories.
Monsters forward Zach Cohen made it 2-0 at 2:59 by punching in a loose puck.
The Moose righted itself with a tally at 5:12, center Marco Rosa slipping a shot past goalie Jason Bacashihua.
Bacashihua and Weiman were teammates with Lake Erie in 2007-08 and 2008-09. Bacashihua played for Hershey last season.
A sensational no-look pass from Monsters center Ben Walter set up right winger Greg Mauldin at 6:19. Mauldin's fourth of the season electrified the crowd.
The Moose was unfazed. It answered at 8:22 (Shawn Weller), then tied the score at 17:55 (Joel Perrault).
Manitoba grabbed its first lead when center Cody Hodgson fired a rocket upstairs from long distance at 19:12.
Lake Erie seemed to have the life sucked out of it and struggled to generate legitimate chances in the third. Manitoba scored at 12:57 and 15:22 of the final period.
"We've got to get better defensively," Quinn said. "It was one guy after another making mistake after mistake. Every time I looked up, there was a [Moose] jersey with the puck and nobody was on him."
Bacashihua gave up all of the goals and made just 15 saves. Quinn refused to hang the loss on him.
"I felt bad for Jason Bacashihua because most of their goals were tap-ins," Quinn said.
Weiman made 24 saves in his first game as a Monsters opponent.
"It obviously was a little strange coming back," Weiman said. "I didn't know how to get into the building. I tried to stay focused on the game and not think too much."
The Monsters went 0-for-4 on the power play, sinking to 1-for-34 this season.
The Moose was 0-for-6 on the power play. Quinn has had minimal complaints about his club's penalty kill through nine games.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: dmanoloff@plaind.com, 216-999-4664