Monsters Back To .500 With 2-1 Shootout Victory

WINNIPEG, MB – The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, proudly powered by Constellation, defeated the Manitoba Moose in a shootout on Saturday at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, MB by a final score of 2-1. With the win, Cleveland’s third consecutive victory and fifth in the team’s past six games, the Monsters improved to 11-11-1-1 overall this season and with a .500 points percentage, currently sit alone in fifth place in the AHL’s Central Division standings.

After a scoreless opening period, the Moose claimed a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the middle stanza when Kyle Connor wedged a Chase De Leo feed past Cleveland net-minder Joonas Korpisalo on the power-play at 1:37, the Manitoba rookie’s first-career AHL tally. In the third, Markus Hannikainen parlayed a Nick Moutrey feed into his eighth marker of the season, an even-strength wrister at 4:04 that drew the Helsinki, Finland native into a tie with Oliver Bjorsktrand for the team-lead in goals.

Hannikainen’s score was enough to push the Monsters into overtime and eventually into a shootout that saw a first-round Conner conversion for Manitoba lead to a Sonny Milano response in the bottom of the opening round. In the second round, Korpisalo stopped De Leo and Aaron Palushaj beat Moose goaltender Ondrej Pavelec high to the glove side to put the Monsters in front, and with a third-round denial of Manitoba’s Dan DeSalvo, Korpisalo delivered Cleveland a 2-1 victory.

With the win, Korpisalo improved to 4-3-1 in net for the Monsters this season thanks to a 31-save showing in regulation and overtime and a two-for-three mark in the shootout while Pavelec fell to 5-3-1 between the pipes for the Moose despite stopping 29 of the 30 pucks he faced through regulation and the extra session.

Next up for the Monsters, it’s a Wednesday home tilt vs. the Iowa Wild with full coverage, live from The Q, underway at 7:00 pm on 99X and the Monsters Hockey Network.