CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Monsters beat the Utica Comets 4-2 on Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in front of 10,180 fans. With the win, the Monsters are now 13-4-1-0 and are currently in first place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Brendan Gaunce broke open the scoring at 3:19 of the first period off feeds from Trey Fix-Wolansky and Cole Clayton giving the Monsters an early lead. James Malatesta doubled the score at 17:06 assisted by Carson Meyer and Owen Sillinger sending Cleveland to the first intermission ahead 2-0. Utica’s Max Willman responded at 7:15 of the middle frame for the visitors, but Malatesta recorded his second tally of the night at 14:48 with helpers from Corson Ceulemans and Owen Sillinger bringing the score to 3-1 for the Monsters after 40 minutes. The Comets battled back with a marker from Joe Gambardella at 5:18, but Meyer pushed the game out of reach with an empty-net goal at 19:53 assisted by Jake Christiansen bringing the final score to 4-2.
Cleveland’s Daniil Tarasov had 22 stops for the win while Utica’s Isaac Poulter made 24 saves in defeat.
The Monsters host the Utica Comets for a rematch on Sunday, December 3, at 12:30 p.m. at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Follow the games with full coverage on FOX Sports 1350 ‘The Gambler’, AHLTV and the Monsters Hockey Network.
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Scoring:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | SO | Final | ||||||||
| CLE | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 4 | |||||||
| UTC | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 2 |
Shots/Special Teams:
| Shots | PP | PK | PIM | ||||||
| CLE | 28 | 0/5 | 4/4 | 10 min / 5 inf | |||||
| UTC | 24 | 0/4 | 5/5 | 12 min / 6 inf |
Goaltenders:
| Goaltender | Outcome | Saves | GA | Record | |||||||
| CLE | Tarasov | W | 22 | 2 | 1-0-0 | ||||||
| UTC | Poulter | L | 24 | 3 | 5-3-1 |
Cleveland Record: 13-4-1-0, 1st North Division
Utica Record: 6-8-3-0, 6th North Division
Official Cleveland Monsters Press Release
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