Monsters Move to 22-20-4-1 Following 5-1 Win Over Charlotte Checkers

Provided by The Monsters

The Cleveland Monsters defeated the Charlotte Checkers, 5-1, on Wednesday night at Bojangles’ Coliseum. With the win, the Monsters improve to 22-20-4-1 overall this season and with 49 points, sit alone in fifth place in the AHL’s North Division standings.

After a scoreless first period, Kole Sherwood netted an even-strength goal at 1:42 of the middle frame unassisted to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead. The Monsters extended their lead to 2-0 when Justin Scott potted home a power-play goal at 6:00 of the period with assists from Paul Bittner and Adam Clendening.

Charlotte got on the board at 9:04 of the period when Nick Schilkey tallied an even-strength goal to trim the Monsters lead to 2-1.

In the third period, Monsters defenseman Doyle Somerby poked home a rebound from in front of the net at 2:07 thanks to assists from Nikita Korostelev and Ryan MacInnis to extend Cleveland’s lead to 3-1.

Moments later, MacInnis blasted home another goal from just inside the blue line at 2:36 with assists from Vitaly Abramov and Korostelev to give the Monsters a 4-1 advantage. Cleveland built their largest lead of the night at 9:11 of the final frame when Eric Robinson finished an even-strength marker courtesy of Scott and Ryan Collins to give the Monsters a 5-1 lead.

Cleveland goaltender Jean-Francois Berube stopped 40 of the 41 shots he faced to improve to 14-14-3 on the season, while Checkers netminder Scott Darling stopped 30 of the 35 shots he faced to drop to 5-6-2 on the year.

Next up for the Monsters, it’s a Saturday home matchup versus the Binghamton Devils with full coverage, live from The Q, underway at 7:00 pm.