The Cleveland Monsters lost to the Laval Rocket (28-14-2-2) 5-4 in overtime on Friday night at Place Bell. With the overtime loss, the Monsters are now 23-14-6-1 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Laval’s Joshua Roy opened the scoring with a goal at 3:25 but Cleveland’s James Malatesta was quick with the equalizer at 3:47 assisted by Luca Del Bel Belluz and Will Butcher. Guillaume Richard added a tally with helpers from Mikael Pyyhtiä and Dysin Mayo at 18:52 making it 2-1 for Cleveland to end the first. The Monsters capitalized on the power play when Luca Pinelli slotted one in at 4:12 in the second off feeds from Del Bel Belluz and Pyyhtiä, but the Rocket responded with goals at 8:47 from Florian Xhekaj and 13:46 from Roy to make it an even 3-3 to end the period. Cleveland’s Caleb MacDonald notched a goal at 8:33 with an assist from Zach Aston-Reese in the third but Laval’s Owen Beck added one of his own at 14:33, sending the game to overtime. The Rocket’s Marc Del Gaizo scored the game-winning goal in the extra frame making it 5-4 Laval.
Cleveland’s Ivan Fedotov stopped 30 shots for the loss while Laval’s Jacob Fowler made 23 saves in the win.
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