by Cleveland, OH – A huge night in net from Cleveland goaltender Jet Greaves who saved 32 of 33 shots on goal, allowed Cleveland to capture a thrilling 3-1 victory over the Bellville Senators. The win propelled the Monsters to a 3-1 series win as they will now take on the Syracuse Crunch. Game one of that series will be this Thursday in Cleveland, at 7pm.
A little over 90 seconds into the action, the Monsters got the scoring going with a deflection off a one-time attempt onto the stick of Marcus Bjork who sent it flying past Belleville goaltender Leevi Merilainen with relative ease as the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse crowd came unglued after the quick score. As mentioned, the initial one timer missed but was scooped up by Wolansky who sent it to Sweezy who set Bjork up for the blast and the score!
The Monsters soon had a chance to pull further ahead with a power play about two minutes later, but the kill was successful for Belleville as the Senators kept it at 1-0. The game remained 1-0 until a Senators goal from Steven Halliday tied it at 1 with 5:58 left in the first.
The period went on to end by that same score 1-1. It was a dominant first period for the Monsters that saw them outshoot the Senators 15-4, but they could only make the one count.
Shortly after having a goal taken away, the Senators went on the power play with another chance to score, but the Monsters killed it, keeping the score tied at 1-1 with 10:28 to go in the second period. The game remained tied at 1 until exactly 6 minutes remained in the second period when Owen Sillinger took a pass from Mikael Pyyhtia and pierced the net straight on dead center, to put the Monsters up 2-1.
Belleville, feeling the pressure, crumbled a bit and lost composure when they got nailed for a Larson high sticking, handing the Monsters another power play attempt. The Monsters once again were shut down on it however, and moved to 0-3 on the power play on the night.
After killing a penalty, the Senators had a chance for a power play of their own following a Monsters slashing call with 46 seconds left in the second period. Things went from bad to worse for the Monsters when they got called for a cross checking penalty only a few moments later. This happened with 4 seconds left in the second period, meaning Belleville would open the third period with a two-man advantage.
The odds were stacked against Cleveland to begin the third period as they were down 2 skaters and had 1:53 to kill. Goaltender Jet Greaves stepped up masterfully, shutting the Senators down as the Monsters killed both penalties and remained on top 2-1. The Monsters went on to close it out 3-1 as they got an empty net goal from Justin Pearson with 3 seconds left in the game.
