The Cleveland Monsters beat the Toronto Marlies 4-3 on Thursday night at Rocket Arena. With the win, the Monsters lead the North Division First Round best-of-three series 1-0.

The Marlies struck first with a goal from Alex Nylander at 6:30, but Denton Mateychuk responded with a tally at 7:48 assisted by Rocco Grimaldi and Madison Bowey tying the game 1-1 after 20 minutes. Following a scoreless second period, Guillaume Richard recorded a marker at 4:11 of the third frame with helpers from Luca Del Bel Belluz and Trey Fix-Wolansky putting the Monsters ahead 2-1. Luca Pinelli scored a power-play tally at 8:21 off feeds from Stanislav Svozil and Mikael Pyyhtia extending the lead to 3-1. Toronto’s Alex Steeves responded with two goals at 16:49 on the power play and even strength at 19:11 tying the game 3-3 and forcing overtime. Pinelli was the overtime hero scoring at 9:42 of the extra frame with assists from Bowey and Mateychuk giving Cleveland the 4-3 win.

Cleveland’s Jet Greaves stopped 25 shots for the win while Toronto’s Dennis Hildeby made 31 saves in defeat.

The Monsters and Marlies meet for Game 2 of the North Division First Round on Saturday, April 26, at 4:00 p.m. at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Follow the games with full coverage on FOX Sports 1350 The Gambler, AHLTV on FloHockey and the Monsters Hockey Network.

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GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*

*Game highlights will appear as soon as possible following video processing.