The Cleveland Monsters fell to the Syracuse Crunch (38-19-3-2) 6-3 on Sunday evening at Upstate Medical University Arena. With the loss, the Monsters are now 33-22-6-1 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
After a scoreless first period, Syracuse scored four goals in the second frame as Matthew Peca scored at 0:29, followed by Gabriel Szturc at 2:04, Dylan Duke at 2:54, and Jakob Pelletier at 19:26 to put the Crunch up 4-0 through 40 minutes. Ethan Gauthier made it 5-0 for Syracuse at 2:17 of the final frame but Brendan Gaunce found the net for Cleveland to make it 5-1 with helpers from Zach Aston-Reese and Corson Ceulemans at 2:36. The Monsters added two more goals with Owen Sillinger scoring on the power play at 13:43 with Gaunce and Luca Del Bel Belluz on the assists, followed by Max McCue adding a marker at 18:51 to make it 5-3 off feeds from Luca Marrelli and Guillaume Richard. Pelletier picked up the empty-net tally for the Crunch at 19:10 to secure a 6-3 win for Syracuse.
Cleveland’s Zach Sawchenko stopped 14 shots in defeat while Syracuse’s Brandon Halverson made 26 saves for the win.
