The Cleveland Monsters beat the Belleville Senators (24-29-8-0) 7-2 on Wednesday night at CAA Arena. With the win, the Monsters are now 33-20-6-1 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Luca Del Bel Belluz scored for Cleveland at 7:29 of the first period with Mikael Pyyhtiä and Dysin Mayo on the assists for an early 1-0 lead.
Belleville’s Arthur Kaliyev tied the game 1-1 at 8:49 but was followed by Monsters forward Luca Pinelli adding a tally on a delayed penalty at 17:55 as Owen Sillinger and Corson Ceulemans picked up helpers to send Cleveland into the first break up 2-1.
Kaliyev scored again for the Senators just 1:32 into the second period to tie the game 2-2. The Monsters capitalized on the power play at 7:47 as Pyyhtiä added a marker off feeds from Sillinger and Luca Marrelli to pull Cleveland ahead 3-2 after 40 minutes.
Del Bel Belluz added his second goal of the night at 5:17 of the final frame with Hunter McKown and Pyyhtiä notching assists to make it 4-2 Cleveland.
Zach Aston-Reese buried one at 9:19 of the frame with help from McKown extending the Monsters lead to 5-2, followed by Roman Ahcan’s empty net goal at 16:49 off a feed from Del Bel Belluz to go up 6-2 on the night.
Del Bel Belluz finished the scoring with his third goal of the game to complete the hat trick at 18:17 with an assist credited to Pinelli to solidify a 7-2 Cleveland win.
Cleveland’s Zach Sawchenko stopped 29 shots for the win while Belleville’s Mads Søgaard made 31 saves in defeat.
