Published on April 26th, 2016 for the clevelandmonsters.com (then Lake Erie Monsters)

On Saturday, April 23^rd, the Lake Erie Monsters defeated the Rockford IceHogs by a final score of 5-3 to claim the team’s first Calder Cup Playoff series victory in franchise history, three games to none. With the win, the Monsters advanced to the best-of-seven game Central Division Finals vs. the winner of the Grand Rapids Griffins’ and Milwaukee Admirals’ first-round series.

The Monsters are very familiar with both potential second round opponents. They saw the Griffins twelve times in the regular season with a 5-3-3-1 record against them and in eight match-ups with the Admirals, Lake Erie went 3-4-0-1.

Despite not knowing which of the two they will be playing, the Monsters want to keep up their momentum from the first round series, “When you win hockey games, you get confident, and I like the way we’re winning games right now,” Monsters Head Coach Jared Bednar said, “We want to continue to play the same way, continue to improve, and we have to make sure we get to the net.”

During the sweep of Rockford, not only did the Monsters score five goals each game, 16 different players tallied points over the course of three games, with 10 different players scoring goals. “We have a ton of depth and we’re going to use that to our advantage,” alternate captain Jaime Sifers said.

The Monsters will continue to focus on their game while they wait for the results of the Milwaukee-Grand Rapids series. The Griffins currently hold a 2-0 lead in that Central Division Semi-final with game three scheduled for tonight, Tuesday, April 26^th, at 7:00 p.m. in Grand Rapids.