The Lake Erie Monsters scored three times in the opening 4:08 of the second period on Thursday en route to a 5-1 win and a 2-0 series lead over the Rockford IceHogs.
The Monsters took back-to-back wins on the road and now head home with a chance to close out the best-of-five Central Division semifinal series in Game 3 on Saturday.
Josh Anderson registered his first career hat trick as part of a four-point night, and Oliver Bjorkstrand and Lukas Sedlak snapped a 1-1 deadlock with goals 20 seconds apart.
Markus Hannikainen and Dillon Heatherington each recorded two assists and Joonas Korpisalo (2-0) stopped 24 of 25 shots for the Monsters, who improved to 11-1-1-0 in their last 13 games overall and 9-0-1-0 in their last 10 on the road.
Ryan Hartman had the lone goal for the IceHogs, who have lost 14 of their last 18 postseason games dating back to 2008.
Central Division Semifinals – Series “F” (best-of-5)
C2-Lake Erie Monsters vs. C3-Rockford IceHogs
Game 1 – Wed., Apr. 20 – Lake Erie 5, ROCKFORD 2
Game 2 – Thu., Apr. 21 – Lake Erie 5, ROCKFORD 1
Game 3 – Sat., Apr. 23 – Rockford at Lake Erie, 7:00
*Game 4 – Mon., Apr. 25 – Rockford at Lake Erie, 7:00
*Game 5 – Thu., Apr. 28 – Rockford at Lake Erie, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
Josh Anderson nets his second of the game to give @monstershockey the 4-1 advantage #LEvsRFD pic.twitter.com/0OEqKZT4VD
— AHL (@TheAHL) April 22, 2016
