Western Division leaders, Fresno Monsters, completed a season-series sweep of Northwest Division's, Southern Oregon Spartans, following three wins in Medford. Southern Oregon faced the same uphill battle holding only a single lead the entire weekend.
Feb. 28
Fresno 8, S. Oregon 1
Feb. 29
Fresno 7, S. Oregon 2
Mar. 1
Fresno 10, S. Oregon 3
Southern Oregon had the start it was looking for. Andrew Rothmeier handed the Spartans a 1-0 lead at 12:19 of the first period in Game 1. The opportune goal turned out to be one of only seven shots in the period that the Spartans could generate.
The lack of offense got them in trouble in the first period when they went down 2-1 after Mikhail Gavrilenko and Petr Philippov, at the 3:00 minute mark, found twine. Fresno went on to pepper Josh Breznik with 66 shots and in doing so, had a 5-1 lead by the end of the second frame.
Southern Oregon was able to provide some push-back—in Game 2—after going down 1-0 early. However, the Spartans ultimately fell into the same offensive scarcity hindering any momentum from Ian Wark's first of the night. Fresno took over the Saturday tilt, and in subsequent action, with a four goal explosion to answer.
Wark capitalized at 4:46 of the second period capping off the Spartans on the scoreboard.
Nikita Garin, back with the Monsters after spending time in Valencia, had himself a five point night on Sunday. But Anton Svensson stole the show registering a total of six points including 1G-5A.