The Cleveland Monsters beat the Belleville Senators (19-19-8-0) 6-5 in overtime on Saturday night at Rocket Arena. With the win, the Monsters are now 22-14-5-1 and are currently in fourth place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
The Monsters had control of the opening frame starting with a goal from Hunter McKown at 4:42 off a feed from Dysin Mayo. Mikael Pyyhtiä followed with a tally at 7:03 with helpers from Luca Del Bel Belluz and Caleb MacDonald sending Cleveland to the first intermission leading 2-0. Hudson Fasching scored an unassisted goal at 10:30 of the middle frame extending the Monsters lead followed by a power-play tally from Del Bel Belluz assisted by Brendan Gaunce and Luca Marrelli pushing the score to 4-0. Belleville recorded a pair of markers from Arthur Kaliyev on the man advantage at 15:41 and Garrett Pilon at 17:14, but Gaunce closed out the frame with a power-play goal at 18:38 assisted by Del Bel Belluz and Luca Pinelli bringing the score to 5-2 after 40 minutes. The Senators added three goals in the third period from Carter Yakemchuk at 3:41, Jamieson Rees at 5:10 and Jan Jeník at 12:32 to tie the game and force an extra frame. Dysin Mayo became the overtime hero with a marker at 3:10 assisted by Gaunce bringing the final score to 6-5.
Cleveland’s Zach Sawchenko stopped 20 shots for the win while Belleville’s Hunter Shepard made 22 saves in defeat.