Cleveland Monsters (2) at WBS Penguins (7)
In their final meeting of the regular season, the Cleveland Monsters fell to the Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins,7-2, in dramatic fashion. Not only did the Penguins sweep the season series, 4-0-0-0, they outscored the Monsters 15-3. The Monsters really needed the win to help put some distance between them and the sixth-place team in the division. Additionally, the two points they missed out on would have put them even closer to the fourth spot which is a playoff spot.
Despite allowing seven goals, Matiss Kivlenieks was a consistent bright spot in the game. He made highlight reel save after highlight reel save but had no help when it came to clearing out rebounds.
It’s clear that Mark Letestu was the glue which held the power play together. Last night, the Monster went one-for-seven on the power play. All seven power plays looked like penalty kills. If it wasn’t for Dan DeSalvo’s blue collar style goal on the fourth one, none of the extra man advantages would have been successful.
The second Monsters goal was scored by defenseman Dillon Simpson. It was a beautiful wraparound goal full of finesse.
Other than the two goals and Kivlenieks standing on his head, there was really nothing else for the Monsters to hang their hat on last night.
They need to find a way to get it together before tonight’s game against the Syracuse Crunch at 7pm.
3 Stars
1st – Sam Miletic (1g, 3a)
2nd – Jean-Sebastien Dea (2g, 1a)
3rd – Joseph Blandisi (1g, 2a)
Game Stats
Monsters Lines
Robinson-Broadhurst-DeSalvo
Gerbe-Scott-Sherwood
Korostelev-McInnis- Bittner
Abramov-Vigneault-Fortier
Monsters Pairings
Carlsson-Clendening
Cross-Collins
Prapavessis-Simpson
What’s Next
The road trip continues the next night, Feb 2nd, against the Syracuse Crunch at 7:00pm.