The Cleveland Monsters defeated the Syracuse Crunch 4-2 on Saturday night at Upstate Medical University Arena. With the win, the Monsters are now 4-4-0-0 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Cleveland’s Marcus Bjork started the scoring just 1:01 into the opening frame on a one-time chance off feeds from Samuel Knazko and Trey Fix-Wolansky.
Kirill Marchenko notched his fifth of the year on the power play with assists from Brendan Gaunce and Emil Bemstrom at 18:34 of the first period, putting the Monsters ahead 2-0 entering the first break.
Carson Meyer picked up the scoring from there, converting on an odd-man rush with helpers from Fix-Wolansky and Justin Richards at 0:55 in the middle stanza, giving the Monsters a 3-0 lead headed into the third period.
At the start of the third, Syracuse cut the Cleveland lead to two with a power play goal from Simon Ryfors, but the Monsters responded with an insurance tally from Brendan Gaunce off assists from Meyer and Billy Sweezey.
The Crunch cut into the deficit with their net empty on a marker from Darren Raddysh at 16:21, but the Monsters held on for a 4-2 victory.
Cleveland’s Joonas Korpisalo made 38 saves to earn the win while Syracuse’s Hugo Alnefelt made 32 saves in defeat.
