End of the Road

CLEVELAND – In their final road game of the 2020-21 season, the Grand Rapids Griffins fell to the Cleveland Monsters by a 6-4 count on Friday at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

After getting shut out by Kaden Fulcher and the Griffins 2-0 here on Tuesday, the Monsters opened the scoring 6:07 into this contest, when Tristan Mullin roofed a shot over Fulcher from low in the left circle. Cleveland’s potent power play then connected just seven seconds into its first opportunity, as Carson Meyer scored from the slot at 8:18 to make it 2-0 for the home team.

Chase Pearson put Grand Rapids on the board at 12:56 by deflecting Seth Barton’s shot, giving Barton his first pro point in his third game, but Cliff Pu got it right back at 13:43 by taking a shot that glanced off Joe Hicketts and past Fulcher, giving the Monsters a 3-1 advantage.

Pat Nagle replaced Fulcher between the Griffins’ pipes, and Grand Rapids immediately responded by scoring two quick goals to knot the score at 3-3. Max Humitz got a stick on Givani Smith’s feed at 15:17, before Smith redirected Taro Hirose’s pass into the top of Daniil Tarasov’s net from the right post 50 seconds later for a power play goal.

Cleveland received a full two-minute 5-on-3 advantage 50 seconds into the middle frame after an interference call on Patrick Curry and a violation by Pearson on the ensuing faceoff, and the Monsters capitalized on Gavin Bayreuther’s one-timer from the right circle at 2:06 to move back ahead 4-3.

That margin held until the 3:49 mark of the third, when Josh Dunne cleaned up a rebound in front of Nagle to post Cleveland to its second two-goal cushion of the evening. Riley Barber unleashed his deadly snap shot from above the right circle during a power play at 12:27 for his 19th goal of the campaign and a 5-4 score, but the Griffins could get no closer. Dunne sealed matters with an empty-netter at 18:55.

Notes

• Grand Rapids played its fifth game in the last eight days and its 11th game in the last 19 days. The Griffins will make it 6-in-9 and 12-in-20 with Saturday’s season finale against the Monsters at Van Andel Arena.
• The Griffins managed an 8-8 road record this season despite bussing to and from the host city on the same day of 14 of those 16 games.
• Hicketts’ assist on Smith’s goal was the 100th of his Griffins/AHL career.