Cleveland Monsters (2) at Iowa Wild (1) – Overtime

Attendance: 3,913

Starters

Monsters

Wild

Goal Recap

The Wild came out strong scoring in the first minute of the game. Teemu Pulkkinen found Zack Mitchell on the back door who tapped the puck in past Brad Thiessen’s left pad.

With a little over a minute left in the game, Dean Kukan fired a shot off from the right point to tie things up.

Both teams frantically tried to break the tie before time ran out. No dice. This game was headed into overtime.

Barely two minutes into overtime the game came to an end. Joe Pendenza skated across the ice firing the puck to a wide open Jaime Sifers. He turned and fired a heavy shot from the top of the right circle to give the Monsters the overtime win.

Jaime Sifers wins it in overtime for @monstershockey 🚨 pic.twitter.com/JHnl21vIBD

— AHL (@TheAHL) February 9, 2017

But Wait! There’s More

Quick Thoughts

• The 4^th line of Ryan Craig, Brett Gallant, and Joe Pendenza has a lot of potential. They created scoring chances, moved swiftly across the ice, and played an aggresively clean game.
• The enforcers stood tall in tonight’s win and showed the league they are more than just “noted goons”. During the second period, Oleg Yevenko fired a rocket through traffic that just missed the net. All night he played with immense patience watching plays unfold and passing the puck with meaning. Then there was Gallant who had two chances to score tonight. One went a hair wide of the net and one was stuffed by  Stalock. Jaime Sifers was the Monsters’ piece de resistance tonight.  He was able to read the thoughts of all of his teammates and ended up in the right place, at the right time to score the game-winner in overtime.
• The Monsters attacked the blue paint most of the night rebounding shot after shot and getting in the goalie’s line of sight. It took awhile for those shots to turn  into goals.    /

3 Stars

1^st – Jaime Sifers (1g, 0a)

2^nd – Brad Thiessen (17 saves, 18 shots faced,  TOI: 60:22)

3^rd – Alex Stalock (32 saves, 34 shots faced, TOI: 61:45)

What’s Next

The Monsters get one day of rest before taking on the Manitoba Moose in Cleveland this weekend.