The Cleveland Monsters beat the Rochester Americans 5-4 on Friday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. With the win, the Monsters are now 24-27-8-4 and are currently in seventh place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
The Monsters set the tone early after an unassisted tally from Cole Cassels just 15 seconds into the opening frame followed by a goal from Jake Christiansen at 1:05 off feeds from Tyler Sikura and Cole Fonstad. Robbie Payne recorded his first marker of the night at 4:58 assisted by Jake Gaudet and Thomas Schemitsch before adding his second goal on the power play at 13:14 with helpers from Carson Meyer and Tyler Angle. Rochester’s JJ Peterka responded with his first tally of the night at 19:17 leaving Cleveland ahead 4-1 after 20 minutes. The Americans mounted a comeback in the middle frame with a goal from Peterka at 3:07, Josh Teves’ marker at 6:38 and Peterka’s hat trick tally at 10:51 tying the score. Fonstad recorded a goal on the man advantage at 17:35 off feeds from Cassels and Cole Clayton sending Cleveland to the final intermission leading 5-4. The Monsters defense stood tall in the final frame led by goaltender Cam Johnson securing the 5-4 victory.
Cleveland’s Johnson had 38 saves for the win while Rochester’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 29 saves in defeat.
