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Monsters Defeat Griffins Advance to Western Conference Finals

May 17, 2016, 1:18 PM ET [3 Comments]
Paul Berthelot
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Last night the Lake Erie Monsters won game six of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the Grand Rapid Griffins. They advance to the Western Conference Finals where they will take on Ontario Reign, the L.A. Kings affiliate.

This was a much closer series than the first round and almost ended up in the record books. The Monsters jumped out to a 3-0 series lead, winning each game by a goal. They lost game four 5-4 after being up 4-2 to start the third period. They were blown out 6-1 in game five and needed OT to seal game six.

As I discussed last time the Monsters are being led by the players that will shape the future of this organization, and that trend continued.

Zach Werenski was simply fantastic in the series. He had at least a point in every game but the first, finishing with seven points in the six games, capped off by this beauty goal to in overtime to clinch the series.




That goal now gives Werenski a team leading 10 points in nine games, and lands him among some rare company.




He currently sits seventh in the playoff scoring race, and second behind Connor Carrick among defencemen. Even more impressive is the six players ahead of Werenski are all at least three years older.

I know we shouldn’t overreact to a small sample but it’s starting to feel more and more like Werenski is a shoe in to make the Jackets next season.

Josh Anderson’s strong playoffs continued. He had four points in the series including two assists in the clincher. He's now up to nine points in nine games, and along with Alex Broadhurst are the only Monster forwards to be at a point per game.

The Monsters will be taking on Ontario Reign, who won the Pacific Division with 93 points. They are a veteran team lead by Sean Backman who had 55 points in 68 games. The Reign play a similar style to the Kings and will make life tough on the young Monster forwards. In net Ontario has veteran of 297 NHL games in Peter Budaj. Budaj is still just 33 years old and still has a lot left in the tank. He posted a .932 save percentage in the AHL regular season and has a .918 SV% in the playoffs.

With that being said there is still some young talent on that team. They have one of the top prospects in the game in Adrian Kempe. Kempe is just 19 years old, and already has played a full season in the AHL and is partaking in his second long playoff run. Last season he came over from Sweden and played in 17 playoff games as the Manchester Monarchs won the Calder Cup. Kempe was great during that run with nine points in 17 games. This season he had 28 points in 55 games in the regular season and has added another five in nine playoff games. He's a player the Monsters need to keep an eye on.

The series format will be a 2-3-2 with Game 1 on Saturday in Ontario.




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