The Cleveland Monsters entered the Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina Friday prepared to square off in division play against the Charlotte Checkers. The Monsters came into play Friday sitting in fifth place of the Central Division.
Cleveland would start strong in the opening frame. Just a few minutes into the game, the Monsters would make a quick strike. Joe Devin scored his first goal of the season at the 2:55 mark, putting Cleveland in front early on. The Devin goal set up by Ryan Craig and Sonny Milano would be the lone goal of the frame, sending the Monsters into the break leading Charlotte 1-0.
Charlotte would start to gain momentum in what was a very back-and-forth middle stanza. Andrew Poturalski would find the back of the net for the twelfth time this season to even the game at one apiece at the 4:06 mark of the frame. Marc-Andre Bergeron would find an opportunity and execute the set-up from T.J. Tynan to put the Monsters up 2-1 at the 5:28 mark. Less than thirty seconds later, Patrick Brown went for an unassisted equalizer at the 5:56 mark. The teams broke for intermission deadlocked at two.
In a tale of two halves, the third frame would not settle the score. Cleveland would net two goals in the first twelve minutes, as Craig (5:49) and Jordan Maletta (11:59) would once again set Cleveland up with the lead. Unfortunately, Charlotte’s Levko Koper (12:18) and Brendan Woods (13:08) would act fast and knot the contest back up at four. The sides would enter an overtime period.
Poturalski would make the Monsters pay during the free hockey frame, lifting the Checkers to a 5-4 come-from-behind victory with a marker just thirty-four seconds into the frame.
Cleveland is now 24-22-3-4 on the season, slotting them in fifth place in the Central Division currently. The Monsters will do battle with the Checkers again on Saturday, with opening face-off at 6:00pm.
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