Monsters skate past Comets with 6-1 win
Dec 19, 2024The Cleveland Monsters beat the Utica Comets 6-1 on Thursday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. With the win, the Monsters are now 17-7-1-2 and in first place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Luca Del Bel Belluz opened the scoring for Cleveland at 2:09 of the first period off feeds from Trey Fix-Wolansky and Rocco Grimaldi. Denton Mateychuk doubled the lead at 11:13 with a marker assisted by Owen Sillinger and Dylan Gambrell sending the Monsters to the first intermission ahead 2-0. Mateychuk scored his second goal of the night on the power play just 57 seconds into the middle frame with helpers from Grimaldi and Joseph LaBate. Utica’s Max Willam converted on the man advantage at 5:56, but Gavin Brindley notched a tally at 9:46 off feeds from Gambrell and Justin Pearson extending Cleveland’s lead to 4-1 after 40 minutes. The Monsters closed out the game in the third period starting with a power-play goal from Gambrell at 10:35 assisted by Sillinger and Daemon Hunt followed by a marker from Pearson at 11:06 with helpers from Corson Ceulemans and Hunter McKown bringing the final score to 6-1.
Cleveland’s Pavel Cajan made 21 saves for the win while Utica’s Nico Daws stopped 32 shots in defeat.
The Monsters host the Rochester Americans for a 3:00 p.m. puck drop on Sunday, December 22, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Follow the games with full coverage on Rock Entertainment Sports Network, Cleveland CW 43, FOX Sports 1350 The Gambler, AHLTV on FloHockey and the Monsters Hockey Network.
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Scoring:
|
|
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
OT |
SO |
Final |
|
CLE |
2 |
2 |
2 |
- |
- |
6 |
|
UTC |
0 |
1 |
0 |
- |
- |
1 |
Shots/Special Teams:
|
|
Shots |
PP |
PK |
PIM |
|
CLE |
37 |
2/7 |
2/3 |
20 min / 6 inf |
|
UTC |
20 |
1/3 |
5/7 |
28 min / 10 inf |
Goaltenders:
|
|
Goaltender |
Outcome |
Saves |
GA |
Record |
|
CLE |
Cajan |
W |
19 |
1 |
2-0-0 |
|
UTC |
Daws |
L |
31 |
6 |
3-10-1 |
Cleveland Record: 17-7-1-2, 1st North Division
Utica Record: 6-14-1-2, 7th North Division
GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*
*Game highlights will appear as soon as possible following video processing.