Monsters Battle with Crunch Ends in 6-3 Loss
The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters stumbled against the Syracuse Crunch with a 6-3 loss on Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. With the loss, the Monsters are now 2-2-0-0 and are currently tied for third place in the AHL’s North Division standings with four points.
Syracuse’s Nolan Valleau opened the scoring 4:26 into the first period, but Cleveland’s Kole Sherwood responded with a marker of his own at the 6:18 mark off assists from Ryan Collins and Ryan MacInnis. Stefan Matteau doubled the lead with his first goal as a Monster at 9:11 with Justin Scott and Gabriel Carlsson collecting the helpers. The Crunch reclaimed the lead making it 3-2 to end the opening frame with goals from Dennis Yan at 11:31 and Danick Martel at 14:53.
Syracuse capitalized on a five-on-three power-play opportunity at 4:12 of the second period off Peter Abbandonato’s tally. Sherwood scored his second goal of the night for Cleveland at 9:27 with Calvin Thurkauf picking up the lone assist, but Syracuse’s Alex Barre-Boulet recorded a tally at 17:08 to make it 5-3.
Syracuse brought the final score to 6-3 following Otto Somppi’s marker at 8:37 of the third period. Cleveland’s Veini Vehvilainen stopped 31 saves in defeat while Syracuse’s Louis Domingue made 30 saves to earn the win.
Scoring:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | SO | Final | |
| CLE | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 3 |
| LAV | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 6 |
SHOTS/SPECIAL TEAMS:
| Shots | PP | PK | PIM | |
| CLE | 33 | 0/6 | 3/4 | 10 min / 5 inf |
| LAV | 37 | 1/4 | 6/6 | 14 min / 7 inf |
Goaltenders:
| Goaltender | Outcome | Saves | GA | Record | |
| CLE | Vehvilainen | L | 31 | 6 | 1-1-0 |
| SYR | Wedgewood | W | 30 | 3 | 1-0-1 |
Cleveland Record: 2-2-0-0, T-3rd North Division
Syracuse Record: 2-0-1-0, 2nd North Division
GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*
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