The Cleveland Monsters came out victorious over the Toronto Marlies with a 5-4 overtime win. Cleveland took both games against Toronto.
Saturday’s win against the Toronto Marlies did not go to plan for the Cleveland Monsters. Veini Vehvilainen had a rough 15 minutes in the 1st period and was pulled after allowing three goals. Cleveland Monsters head coach Mike Eaves addressed this after the game.
Mike Eaves
Mike Eaves said the following regards to Matiss Kivlenieks coming in for Vehvilainen.
They’ve played long enough that it’s happened to them before and even when they’re not dressing, they don’t think they’re going to play, there’s that little wire that says you have to be ready.
Eaves also added that Kivlenieks was able to “do a nice job for us” in regards to his performance.
When asked about his decision to make the switch, Eaves talked about his thought process.
Leave him in and have him work through it or is he struggling so badly that you’re just gonna bury him.
Eaves made the move so Vehvilainen “wouldn’t get buried out there”. The move also made to send a message to the rest of the team that they were not mailing this game in. They obviously felt they could come back and win this game.
When it came to the game-winning goal, Eaves mentioned that some of the players said that “yeah, we’ll be working on that when we get back”. It was more about their hockey skills and they took over in the moment.
Trey Fix-Wolansky
Trey Fix-Wolanksy described the pass from Paul Bittner on his power play goal.
It was a great pass down low, and then just tried to find a soft pocket. Bittsy made a great pass to me and put it far side, just happy it went in.
Fix-Wolansky would later describe this win as huge, mentioning that they have previously failed when it comes to closing a game.
Kole Sherwood
Kole Sherwood described what it means to come away with two wins against Toronto.
It’s huge, going into the break. Obviously we were struggling for a bit there, to pull away some points.
Sherwood smiled when commenting on his second goal of the game, mentioning that he was “just feelin’ it”.
Sherwood mentioned that the system in Cleveland and the system in Columbus are the same. This means that there is less of an adjustment for players going back and forth between the AHL and NHL.
