Monsters End Road Trip with 6-2 Loss in Utica
Jan 18, 2020The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters were defeated by the Utica Comets on Saturday at Adirondack Bank Center by a final score of 6-2. With the loss, the Monsters fell to 18-20-1-2 and with 39 points, currently occupy seventh place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Utica claimed a 2-0 first period lead with a power-play goal from Kole Lind at 8:10 and an even-strength finish from former Monster and Cleveland native Carter Camper at 8:49, but the Monsters answered back with a Ryan MacInnis extra-man strike at 10:43 on feeds from Trey Fix-Wolansky and Andrew Peeke. In the second, Utica rattled off three more goals, from Lucas Jasek at 0:26, Seamus Malone at 3:16 and a shorthanded Nikolay Goldobin marker at 15:23 to take a 5-1 advantage into the third period. Monsters forward Calvin Thurkauf struck for an even-strength conversion at 12:34 of the third with Derek Barach and Markus Hannikainen registering assists on the play, but a Reid Boucher marker for the Comets at 18:05 of the final period established the Comets final margin of victory at 6-2.
Cleveland goaltender Veini Vehvilainen stopped 19 pucks in defeat in 40 minutes of action before Monsters’ net-minder Brad Thiessen posted five third-period saves in relief. Meanwhile, Utica’s Michael DiPietro made 24 stops in victory.
Next up for the Monsters, it’s a Wednesday home clash vs. the Rochester Americans with full coverage, live from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse at 7:00 pm on Alt 99.1, AHLTV and the Monsters Hockey Network.
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Scoring:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | SO | Final | |
| CLE | 1 | 0 | 1 | - | - | 2 |
| UTI | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - | 6 |
Shots/Special Teams:
| Shots | PP | PK | PIM | |
| CLE | 26 | 1/4 | 1/2 | 6 min / 3 inf |
| UTI | 30 | 1/2 | 3/4 | 10 min / 5 inf |
Goaltenders:
| Goaltender | Outcome | Saves | GA | Record | |
| CLE | Vehvilainen | L | 19 | 5 | 9-11-1 |
| CLE | Thiessen | ND | 5 | 1 | 1-1-0 |
| UTI | DiPietro | W | 24 | 2 | 13-5-1 |
Cleveland Record: 18-20-1-2, 7th North Division
Utica Record: 25-13-2-2,1st North Division
GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*
*Game highlights will appear as soon as possible following video processing.