The Cleveland Monsters fell to the Toronto Marlies 5-2 on Thursday evening at Rocket Arena. With the loss, the Marlies lead the series 1-0 in North Division Finals presented by Ten10.

Cleveland’s Hudson Fasching notched the only goal of the first period off feeds from Luca Pinelli and Will Butcher at 4:56 while on the man-advantage giving the Monsters a 1-0 lead. Cleveland’s Hunter McKown cracked open the second period scoring with a goal at 7:37 assisted by Tate Singleton but Toronto responded with a power-play goal from Easton Cowan at 17:52 and an additional tally from Marshall Rifai at 19:53 to make it an even 2-2 heading into the final frame. Toronto recorded three unanswered points in the third off goals from Alex Nylander at 2:15 and Ryan Tverberg at 12:32 and an empty-net tally from Benoit-Olivier Groulx at 16:15 to give the Marlies the 5-2 victory. 

Cleveland’s Zach Sawchenko stopped 11 shots in defeat while Toronto’s Artur Akhtyamov made 32 saves for the win. 

The Monsters will stay at Rocket Arena to face the Toronto Marlies in Game 2 of the North Division Finals presented by Ten10. Follow the game with full coverage on Cleveland’s 43, SportsRadio 99.1 Powered by Rock Entertainment Group, 1390 The Gambler WNIO-AM, AHLTV on FloHockey and the Monsters Hockey Network.

Single game tickets for Game 2 of the North Division Finals presented by Ten10 are ON SALE NOW at clevelandmonsters.com/playoffs.

Stay up to date on all Monsters news with the Monsters Mobile App presented by University Hospitals available to download at the Apple Store or Google Play Store. Be sure to follow the Monsters on X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

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GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*

*Game highlights will appear as soon as possible following video processing.