Monsters clinch playoff berth with 6-4 win over Rocket
Apr 11, 2024The Cleveland Monsters beat the Laval Rocket 6-4 on Thursday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse clinching a spot in the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs. With the win, the Monsters are now 37-23-5-3 and are currently in second place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
The Rocket jumped to an early lead after a goal from Mitchell Stephens 13 seconds into the first period and added a tally from Lucas Condotta at 5:14 leaving the Monsters trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes. Cleveland mounted a comeback in the middle frame beginning when Josh Dunne converted on the power play at 4:07 with helpers from Luca Del Bel Belluz and Stanislav Svozil. Zachary Okabe tied the game after recording his first professional goal at 9:11 assisted by Jakub Zboril and Owen Sillinger. Samuel Knazko added a marker at 13:31 off feeds from Del Bel Belluz and Mitchell Lewandowski pushing the Monsters ahead 3-2. Del Bel Belluz kept the offense rolling with a tally at 17:15 assisted by Stefan Matteau and Svozil sending Cleveland to the final intermission leading 4-2. Laval added a goal from Tobie Bisson at 9:29 of the third period and Emil Heineman on the man advantage at 11:08, but Okabe responded with his second marker of the night at 12:33 assisted by Corson Ceulemans and Sillinger. Alex Whelan secured the win after an empty-net tally at 18:25 with helpers from Justin Pearson and Zboril bringing the final score to 6-4 and punching the Monsters ticket to the 2024 Calder Cup playoffs.
Cleveland’s Pavel Cajan stopped 22 shots for the win while Laval’s Jakub Dobeš made 29 saves in defeat.
The Monsters host the Laval Rocket for the final home game of the regular season on Saturday, April 13, at 7:00 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 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
- |
- |
6 |
|
LAV |
2 |
0 |
2 |
- |
- |
4 |
Shots/Special Teams:
|
|
Shots |
PP |
PK |
PIM |
|
CLE |
35 |
1/3 |
4/5 |
10 min / 5 inf |
|
LAV |
26 |
1/5 |
2/3 |
6 min / 3 inf |
Goaltenders:
|
|
Goaltender |
Outcome |
Saves |
GA |
Record |
|
CLE |
Cajan |
W |
22 |
4 |
8-7-4 |
|
LAV |
Dobeš |
L |
29 |
5 |
23-17-6 |
Cleveland Record: 37-23-5-3, 2nd North Division
Laval Record: 32-29-6-2, 6th North Division
GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*
*Game highlights will appear as soon as possible following video processing.