Rochester Americans (3) at Cleveland Monsters (2)
The Clevelandd Monsters fell to the Rochester Americans, 3-2, on Saturday night. Andrew Oglevie scored all three of the Americans’ goals. While, Veini Vehvilainen stopped 24 of the 27 shots he saw.
The Monsters started the game on the right note with a topshelf snipe from Kevin Stenlund 25 seconds into the first period. A minute later, the Monsters almost scored another goal. Jonas Johansson, the Americans’ netminder, proved to be a much tougher opponent than the Monsters initially thought.
Two back-to-back penalties by the Monsters gave the Americans the chance to tie the game at one. The Monsters successfully killed the first penalty with ease. While, the second penalty lasted a mere nine seconds before Andrew Oglevie tipped Lawrence Pilut’s shot into the net for the equalizer goal.
The Americans’ power play goal was only the third shot of the night Veini Vehvilainen had seen in the first 11 minutes of the game. Most of this was due to Anton Karlsson throwing his body in front of shots and clogging up the scoring lanes.
A penalty by Sam Vigneault towards the end of the first period carried into the start of the second. As time was running out on the Monsters’ penalty, Oglevie scored his second goal of the night to give the Americans the 2-1 lead.
The Americans worked hard to make this goal happen. Brett Murray fired the puck behind Vehvilainen. In a twist of fate, the shot bounced off the post. Kevin Porter picked up the rebound and quickly fired the puck towards the net. Without hesitation, both Justin Scott and Dillon Simpson lept in front of the puck causing it to bounce off of one of their sticks. Oglevie picked up the rebound and launched it at the net. Vehvilainen got in front of the puck before it flew past him. However, the puck ended up bouncing off of his body into the net.
.@AOglevie buries the loose puck for his team-leading eighth 🚨 of the campaign from #CaptainPorts and @brettmurrayy !#UnitedWeROC pic.twitter.com/tjTbU2cFvt
— Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) December 1, 2019
These early penalties hurt the Monsters energy last night. Coach Eaves reflected on the early penalties stating they weren’t “able to get into a rhythm” due being down a man constantly. He also explained that “it hurts your team because then you have guys sitting on the bench.” The longer you sit on the bench, the less likely you will be able to shake the rust off of your skates.
The Monsters were able to tie the game 5:57 into the period due to a series of great passes starting with Ryan MacInnis.
Get ’em pic.twitter.com/WiB81UZ9WQ
— Cleveland ❌onsters (@monstershockey) December 1, 2019
For the rest of the second period, the Monsters and Americans traded momentum, scoring chances, and breakaways. None of which led to the tie breaker.
Oglevie broke the tie for the Americans scoring a hattrick 4:49 into the third period. Andrew Peeke did his best to help Vehvilainen by mirroring him in the crease but it didn’t work out like planned.
🧢🧢🧢 @AOglevie 🧢🧢🧢 pic.twitter.com/4NPSGTvl7h
— Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) December 1, 2019
Cleveland spent the rest of the game trying to match the intensity and energy of the Americans. Unfortunately, for the Monsters, it wasn’t their cleanest period of play this season. They had three turnovers from missed passes, three missed rebounds, two pucks stolen from them while on a breakaway, and faceoff losses that led to the scoring chances for the Americans. Coach Eaves touched on this lack of puck control in the game. “I don’t think we were as good as we have been with the puck. That kind of hurt us when were were trying to get a goal,” he explained, “You need to make good plays with the puck and tonight we just didn’t do that enough.”
In the end, the Monsters couldn’t come up with any good plays and fell to the Americans, 3-2.
The Monsters head out on an extensive road trip where they won’t return home until Friday December 13th. Coach Eaves made sure to point out the fact being on the road so long can be helpful for team bonding. Especially when you are winning games. “One thing about being on the road is it’s not easy but when you have success on the road it’s really fun to do that type of thing together,” Coach Eaves explained,”I’m hoping we can do that”.
3 Stars
1st – Andrew Oglevie (Rochester Americans) – 3g, 0a
2nd – Kevin Porter (Rochester Americans) – 0g, 3a
3rd – Kevin Stenlund (Cleveland Monsters) – 1g, 0a
Monsters Lines
Nathan Gerbe – Kevin Stenlund – Markus Hannikainen
Stefan Matteau – Ryan MacInnis – Marko Dano
Sam Vigneault – Justin Scott – Jakob Lilja
Paul Bittner – Calvin Thurkauf – Maxime Fortier
Monsters Pairs
Gabriel Carlsson – Adam Clendening
Dillon Simpson – Andrew Peeke
Anton Karlsson – Doyle Somerby