Monsters Fall at Home to the Grand Rapids Griffins 4-2

Provided by the Monsters

The Cleveland Monsters were defeated by the Grand Rapids Griffins at The Q on Friday by a final score of 4-2. With the loss, the Monsters fell to 14-23-4-3 overall this season and with a .398 points percentage, remain alone in seventh place in the AHL’s Central Division standings.

Cleveland’s Brady Austin staked the Monsters to a 1-0 lead on Friday with an even-strength finish at 1:05 of the opening period on feeds from Terry Broadhurst and Zac Dalpe before a Matt Puempel power-play goal leveled things at one apiece for the Griffins at 17:01 of the frame. In the middle stanza, Grand Rapids claimed their first advantage at 14:49 when Corey Elkins tallied a five-on-five goal to make it 2-1 Griffins through 40 minutes of play.

The final frame saw Cleveland’s Alex Broadhurst net an even-strength goal at 8:05 thanks to assists from Terry Broadhurst and Garret Cockerill to level the score at two before Grand Rapids rallied for a five-on-five Filip Hronek tally at 15:47, and an empty-net Matt Lorito strike at 19:37, to skate away with a 4-2 victory in the second of three straight games between the Monsters and Griffins.

Cleveland’s Jeff Zatkoff fell to 1-1-1 in net this season despite stopping 27 of the 30 pucks he faced, while Griffins net-minder Tom McCollum improved to 7-8-3 between the pipes this year by virtue of a 26-save performance.

Next up for the Monsters, it’s a Sunday rematch vs. Griffins with full coverage, live from The Q, underway at 1:00 pm.