Monsters come up short in 5-3 loss to Penguins

Photo via Cleveland Monsters

WILKES-BARRE, PA – The Cleveland Monsters fell to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 5-3 on Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. With the loss, the Monsters are now 14-6-1-0 and are currently in first place in the AHL’s North Division standings.

Roman Ahcan scored the Monsters first shorthanded goal of the season at 2:09 of the opening period assisted by Corson Ceulemans to put Cleveland ahead 1-0 after 20 minutes. The Pengiuins added two markers in the middle frame from Ty Smith at 6:16 and Raivis Ansons 9:31 sending the Monsters to the final intermission trailing 2-1. The third period brough a frenzy of goals starting with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Alex Nylander at 11:39 and Corey Andonovski into an empty net at 17:30. James Malatesta responded with a tally at 17:44 off a feed from Billy Sweezey, but Nylander added an empty-net marker on the power play at 19:09. Ahcan recorded his second goal of the night at 19:29 with helpers from Luca Del Bel Belluz and Ceulemans but the Monsters fell by a final score of 5-3.

Cleveland’s Daniil Tarasov had 23 stops in defeat while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Magnus Hellberg made 34 saves for the win.

The Monsters finish the road trip against the Hershey Bears on Saturday, December 9, at 7:00 p.m. at Giant Center. Follow the games with full coverage on FOX Sports 1350 ‘The Gambler’, AHLTV and the Monsters Hockey Network.

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Scoring:

		1st		2nd		3rd		OT		SO		Final
CLE		1		0		2		–		–		3
WBS		0		2		3		–		–		5

 

Shots/Special Teams:

		Shots		PP		PK		PIM
CLE		37		1/3		3/3		6 min / 3 inf
WBS		28		0/3		2/3		6 min / 3 inf

 

Goaltenders:

		Goaltender		Outcome		Saves		GA		Record
CLE		Tarasov		L		23		3		2-1-0
WBS		Hellberg		W		34		3		3-3-0

Cleveland Record: 14-6-1-0, 1st North Division

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Record: 11-8-3-0, 4th Atlantic Division

Official Monsters Press Release