Monsters Improve to 15-10-4-0 with 6-3 Home Win Over the Belleville Senators

Provided by the Monsters

The Cleveland Monsters defeated the Belleville Senators on Friday night at The Q by a final score of 6-3. With the win, the Monsters improve to 15-10-4-0 overall this season and with 34 points, are currently tied for third place with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL’s North Division standings.

The Monsters got the scoring started early in the opening frame when Vitaly Abramov tallied an even-strength goal at 4:13 on feeds from Eric Robinson and Adam Clendening to give Cleveland a 1-0 advantage. Alex Broadhurst extended the Monsters lead to 2-0 at 9:19 of the period with a five-on-five finish courtesy of a saucer pass from Clendening. Broadhurst picked up his second goal of the game later in the frame, netting an even-strength marker on a feed from Mark Letestu at 14:13, to give Cleveland a 3-0 lead. The Senators answered with an even-strength score from Rudolfs Balcers at 15:47 to trim the Monsters lead to 3-1.

In the middle frame, Robinson got his stick on a Tommy Cross shot that was fed from Broadhurst, netting a power-play goal at 5:39 to increase the Monsters lead to 4-1. Belleville responded once again when Balcers picked up his second goal of the game, this time of the power-play variety at 10:46 of the period to make the score, 4-2.

Monsters forward Justin Scott pushed Cleveland’s lead to 5-2 with an even-strength goal at 4:20 of the final period on feeds from Dillon Simpson and Letestu. Broadhurst secured his hat trick at 9:48 of the frame, netting a power-play goal on feeds from Kevin Stenlund and Cross to give the Monsters their biggest lead of the night, 6-2. Belleville cut into the lead once again at 11:41 of the final frame thanks to Tobias Lindberg’s even-strength goal, securing a Monsters 6-3 win.

Monsters goaltender Jean-Francois Berube stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced to improve to 11-8-3 on the season, while Senators netminder Marcus Hogberg stopped 27 of 30 shots faced in relief of Filip Gustavsson to drop to 2-3-1 on the year.

Next up for the Monsters, it’s a Saturday rematch versus the Senators underway at 7:00 pm.