Monsters drop 7-6 decision to Comets

Dec 3, 2023

The Cleveland Monsters fell to the Utica Comets 7-6 on Sunday afternoon at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. With the loss, the Monsters are now 13-5-1-0 and are currently in first place in the AHL’s North Division standings.

 

Utica’s Graeme Clarke got the Comets on the board first just 1:09 into the game, but James Malatesta was quick to respond for Cleveland with a goal at 2:43 assisted Luca Del Bel Belluz and Owen Sillinger. Jake Christiansen put Cleveland ahead at 8:17 off feeds from Del Bel Belluz and Emil Bemstrom. Del Bel Belluz recorded his third primary assist of the opening period when Owen Sillinger buried his second goal of the season at 9:18. Monsters goaltender Pavel Cajan got in on the scoring action with an assist on the Sillinger tally. Tyler Wotherspoon responded for Utica at 12:07, but Trey Fix-Wolansky doubled the Monsters lead at 12:31 with an unassisted goal. Hunter McKown closed out the first period scoring bonanza at 13:21 with assists credited to Bemstrom and Mikael Pyythia to give the Monsters a 5-2 advantage after an eventful first frame. Utica’s Timur Ibragimov cut the Cleveland lead to two at 6:33 of the second period, but Bemstrom restored the three goal advantage for Cleveland at 12:56 off of assists from Pyythia and Billy Sweezey. Max Willman closed out the second period scoring with a Comets goal at 17:48, sending the game into the third with a score of 6-4 Monsters. Utica closed out the third frame with a power-play goal from Ryan Schmelzer at 7:23 and markers from Samuel Laberge at 12:50 and Daniil Misyul at 15:34 bringing the final score to 7-6 in favor of the visitors.

 

Cleveland’s Cajan had 33 stops in defeat while Utica’s Isaac Poulter made 22 saves for the win in relief of starting goaltender Erik Källgren who had 11 stops.

 

The Monsters hit the road to face Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday, December 6, at 7:00 p.m. at XL Center. Follow the games with full coverage on FOX Sports 1350 ‘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 X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Scoring:

	1st	2nd	3rd	OT	SO	Final
CLE	5	1	0	-	-	6
UTC	2	2	3	-	-	7

 

Shots/Special Teams:

	Shots	PP	PK	PIM
CLE	39	0/4	3/4	10 min / 5 inf
UTC	40	1/4	4/4	10 min / 5 inf

 

Goaltenders:

	Goaltender	Outcome	Saves	GA	Record
CLE	Cajan	L	33	7	3-2-1
UTC	Poulter	W	22	1	6-3-1
UTC	Källgren	ND	11	5	1-5-2

Cleveland Record: 13-5-1-0, 1st North Division

Utica Record: 7-8-3-0, 6th North Division

 

GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*

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