Monsters shut out by Griffins at home

Cleveland was held scoreless in the 2-0 loss to Grand Rapids.

Sometimes all it takes is two penalties early in a game to determine the final outcome. That was the case Tuesday as the Cleveland Monsters found themselves on the wrong side of a 2-0 final score at home against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

It was a boarding penalty for Gavin Bayreuther at the 8:44 mark in the 1st period which led to the Grand Rapids power play. The Griffins capitalized on that opportunity just a few minutes later to take a 1-0 lead.

Later in the period it was Brandon Crawley who went to the box on a hooking penalty which set up another Griffins power play and again Cleveland was not able to kill the penalty. Just over a minute later Grand Rapids doubled their lead and scored what was the second and final goal of the game.

The Monsters only managed 22 shots in the contest while Grand Rapids fired 36 in the direction of Matiss Kivelenieks who was able to save 34 of them. On most nights this would have been a good enough performance to come away with a victory, but not when the team is unable to find the back of the net.

Cleveland has one more home game this season on Saturday when they face the Griffins yet again before traveling to Grand Rapids for the final game of the season.