Monsters Topple Marlies in OT, 5-4
Jan 25, 2020The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters beat the Toronto Marlies 5-4 on Saturday afternoon at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. With the win, the Monsters are now 20-20-2-2 and are currently in seventh place in the AHL’s North Division standings with 44 points.
Cleveland and Toronto combined to score the first four goals of the game over the span of just one minute of play in the opening period starting with the Marlies’ markers from Ben Harpur at 14:25 and Nic Petan at 14:53. Derek Barach responded with a goal for the Monsters at 15:06 on feeds from Andrew Peeke and Maxime Fortier, but Tanner MacMaster notched a tally for the Toronto at 15:25. Kole Sherwood made it a one-goal game at 18:59 courtesy of helpers from Marko Dano and Ryan MacInnis to send Cleveland into the first intermission down 3-2. Following a scoreless middle frame, Trey Fix-Wolanksy notched a power-play tally at 9:57 to level the score on assists from Paul Bittner and Stefan Matteau. Sherwood gave Cleveland a 4-3 lead with his second goal at 10:06 on feeds from Calvin Thurkauf and Peeke, but Toronto responded with a Kenny Agostino conversion at 15:39 that forced overtime. Matteau scored the game-winning goal 3:01 into the extra frame with assists from Adam Clendening and Dillon Simpson to secure the 5-4 win for the Monsters.
Cleveland goaltender Veini Vehvilainen stopped seven pucks in 15:25 minutes of action before being relieved by Monsters’ net-minder Matiss Kivlenieks who posted 29 saves in victory. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Joseph Woll made 19 stops in the loss.
The Monsters return from the AHL All Star Break on Friday evening with a 7:00 p.m. puck drop against the Utica Comets at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Follow the games with full coverage on ALT 99.1, AHLTV and the Monsters Hockey Network.
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Scoring:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | SO | Final | |
| CLE | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | - | 5 |
| TOR | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 4 |
Shots/Special Teams:
| Shots | PP | PK | PIM | |
| CLE | 24 | 1/4 | 5/5 | 10 min / 5 inf |
| TOR | 40 | 0/5 | 3/4 | 8 min / 4 inf |
Goaltenders:
| Goaltender | Outcome | Saves | GA | Record | |
| CLE | Vehvilainen | ND | 7 | 3 | 9-11-1 |
| CLE | Kivlenieks | W | 29 | 1 | 9-7-2 |
| TOR | Wall | OT | 19 | 5 | 7-10-3 |
Cleveland Record: 20-20-2-2, 7th North Division
Toronto Record: 21-17-3-2, 5th North Division
GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*
*Game highlights will appear as soon as possible following video processing.