Monsters comeback efforts fall short in 7-5 loss to Comets

Feb 11, 2022

The Cleveland Monsters fell to the Utica Comets 7-5 on Friday night at Adirondack Bank Center. With the loss, the Monsters are now 13-20-5-3 and are currently in seventh place in the AHL’s North Division standings.

 

The Comets took a quick lead to start with goals from Graeme Clark at 5:45, Nate Schnarr on the power play at 8:21, A.J. Greer at 12:16, Alexander Holtz on the man advantage at 14:34 and Greer shorthanded at 18:41 setting a 5-0 lead after 20 minutes. Justin Scott got the Monsters on the board and extended his point streak with a goal at 5:55 of the second period off feeds from Cole Clayton and Tristan Mullin. Utica’s Jeremy Groleau notched a tally at 10:36, but Cole Fonstad kept Cleveland’s offense alive with a marker at 19:35 with assists from Tim Berni and Tyler Sikura cutting the score to 6-2 after 40 minutes. Cleveland pushed back in the final period beginning with Scott’s shorthanded goal at 2:13 off feeds from Mullin and Jake Christiansen. Fonstad added his second tally of the night on the power play at 9:19 assisted by Scott followed by newcomer Robbie Payne adding a marker at 14:36 with helpers from Thomas Schemitsch and Christiansen. Despite a strong final push from the Monsters, the Comets secured the 7-5 win after a empty-net goal from Nolan Foote at 19:53.

 

Cleveland’s Jean-Francois Berube made 16 saves in defeat while Utica’s Akira Schmid made 39 saves for the victory.  

 

The Monsters have a rematch with the Utica Comets on Saturday, February 12, for an 7:00 p.m. puck drop at the Adirondack Bank Center. Follow the game with full coverage on FOX Sports 1350 AM ‘The Gambler’, AHLTV and the Monsters Hockey Network.

 

Stay up to date on all Monsters news with the Monsters Mobile App presented by University Hospitals available to download at the Apple Store or Google Play Store. Be sure to follow the Monsters on Twitter @monstershockey, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/monstershockey, and on Instagram @monstershockey.

 

Scoring:

	1st	2nd	3rd	OT	SO	Final
CLE	0	2	3	-	-	5
UTI	5	1	1	-	-	7

 

Shots/Special Teams:

	Shots	PP	PK	PIM
CLE	44	1/4	2/4	15 min / 6 inf
UTI	24	2/4	3/4	23 min / 6 inf

Goaltenders:

	Goaltender	Outcome	Saves	GA	Record
CLE	Berube	L	16	6	4-9-4
CLE	Greaves	-	1	0	3-6-0
UTI	Schmid	W	39	5	12-1-2

Cleveland Record: 13-20-5-3, 7th North Division

Utica Record: 28-7-5-0, 1st North Division

 

GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*

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