The Cleveland Monsters beat the Syracuse Crunch 8-3 on Wednesday night at Upstate Medical University Arena. With the win, the Monsters are now 10-6-2-3 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
The Monsters offense came out strong for the first period starting with a goal from Trey Fix-Wolansky at 9:01 off assists from Tim Berni and Billy Sweezey. Cole Fonstad added to the lead at 11:59 on the man advantage with feeds from Liam Foudy and Kevin Stenlund followed by a tally from Adam Helewka at 13:46 assisted by Fix-Wolansky pushing Cleveland ahead. Sweezey grabbed a marker at 16:24 with helpers from Helewka and Fonstad giving the Monsters a 4-0 lead heading into the first intermission. Justin Scott added an unassisted goal at 4:39 of the middle frame, but the Crunch scored three power-play markers from Charles Hudon at 9:18 and 14:13 as well as Antoine Morand at 14:49 tightening the Monsters lead to 5-3 after 40 minutes.
Cleveland secured the win in the final frame beginning with a power-play tally from Josh Dunne at 6:10 assisted by Fonstad and Stenlund followed by a marker from Helewka at 12:58 with helpers from Brendan Gaunce and Cole Clayton. Helewka completed his hat trick with a goal at 18:57 off feeds from Clayton and Berni securing the 8-3 win for the Monsters.
Cleveland’s Jean-Francois Berube made 32 stops for the victory while Syracuse’s Amir Miftajhov stopped 3 shots in relief of starting goaltender Max Lagace who made 5 saves in defeat.
