CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland Monsters took the ice at Quicken Loans Arena for their season opener against the Rockford IceHogs. The team was led in by second-year head coach John Madden, who looked to start things off on the right note this year. With a very young team headed by veteran goaltender Brad Thiessen, the Monsters look like a different team than years past and it would be interesting to see the new look.
Unfortunately, tonight was not an ideal night for the Monsters. They fell into an early 1-0 hole when Tomas Jurco found the back of the net off of a deflected shot off the skate of a Monsters player just 1:23 into the game.
In the second period, Viktor Svedberg netted a short-handed goal at the 9:28 mark to truly deflate Cleveland. The Monsters struggled mightily in the special teams category tonight and this was a prime example of the tough night.
Matthew Highmore went top-shelf on Brad Thiessen at the 14:27 mark of the third and Ville Pokka netted an empty-netter for the 4-0 Rockford victory.
Monsters Head Coach John Madden discussed his thoughts on the loss, acknowledging the special teams struggle.
“I thought we generated plenty of scoring chances. Thought we had some good looks. Just didn’t capitalize on any. You score on one of those early and you never know how things go. I think we have the right personnel that can get the job done. It’s just gonna take a little more work.”
The Monsters take a road trip to Manitoba to play the Moose on Friday.
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