The Cleveland Monsters are off to a rough start in their three game road trip, falling by a score of 4-2 to the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Not an ideal start for the Cleveland Monsters on their brutal road trip. Cleveland traveled to Grand Rapids to face the Griffins and found themselves on the wrong side of a 4-2 final score.
The 1st period was scoreless between the two sides as neither team was able to find the back of the net with their nine shots on goal.
In the 2nd period is when things got interesting. Cleveland got on the scoreboard first, courtesy of a Calvin Thurkauf goal. Maxime Fortier and Adam Clendening were credited with assists on the play. The Monsters held onto the lead for quite some time before a brutal 32 second stretch. Grand Rapids score twice in a rather short amount of time putting them ahead of Cleveland. Grand Rapids had three more shots on goal than Cleveland in the period (10-7).
Just over four and a half minutes into the 3rd period Kole Sherwood tied things up. Derek Barach and Markus Hannikainen helped Sherwood on his game-tying goal.
The game remained tied for the majority of the period. That is until Grand Rapids scored a goal with just over a minute and a half remaining in the game. The Griffins would add one more goal with 10 seconds left in the game to seal the Monsters loss.
Veini Vehvilainien got the start in net for the Monster, saving 29 of 32 shots on goal. The final goal for Grand Rapids came against an empty net.
Monsters penalties
Calving Thurkauf was called for hooking just about midway through the 1st period.
Adam Clendening had two slashing penalties against Grand Rapids. Occurring in the 1st period with 19:14 expired and the 2nd period with 12:12 remaining.
Maxime Fortier was called for high-sticking with 44 seconds left in the 2nd period.
Cleveland successfully killed off all four penalties. The Monsters penalty kill is one of the best in the AHL and Friday’s performance just builds upon that reputation.
Power play woes continue
The Monsters went 0-3 on the power play Friday night. This is a trend that has been going all season long and does not appear to be ending any time soon.
