The Cleveland Monsters fell to the Toronto Marlies (27-18-4-5) 7-4 on Wednesday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum. With the loss, the Monsters are now 29-18-6-1 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Cleveland’s Roman Ahcan opened the scoring 5:50 into the opening frame with Luca Pinelli and Owen Sillinger on the assists for the early 1-0 lead.
Logan Shaw of the Marlies tied the game 1-1 at the 16:31 mark, followed by Ahcan pulling the Monsters back ahead 2-1 at 18:07.
Luca Del Bel Belluz added a marker for Cleveland at 19:45 with helpers from Will Butcher and Corson Ceulemans forcing a 3-1 Monsters lead through 20 minutes. Toronto struck twice in the second frame with Michael Pezzetta netting one at 5:49 and Benoit-Olivier Groulx adding a tally at 12:55 to tie the game 3-3.
Monsters forward Brendan Gaunce sent Cleveland into the second break with a 4-3 lead with a goal at 18:32 assisted by Dysin Mayo and Zach Aston-Reese.
Toronto added two more goals early in the third period at 5:42 from Luke Haymes and at 7:19 from Vinni Lettieri, followed by a pair of empty net goals from Groulx at 17:57 and Alex Nylander at 18:50 as the Marlies took the 7-4 win.
Cleveland’s Ivan Fedotov stopped 15 shots for the loss while Toronto’s Artur Akhtyamov made 38 saves for the win.
