The Cleveland Monsters beat the Grand Rapids Griffins (42-9-3-1) 3-2 on Friday at Rocket Arena. With the win, the Monsters are now 30-18-6-1 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Grand Rapids opened the scoring with a goal from Ondrej Becher at 4:47 of the opening frame but Cleveland’s Luca Del Bel Belluz tapped in a power-play goal at 15:16 with helpers from Brendan Gaunce and Luca Marrelli to make it 1-1 going into the second. Gaunce scored the only goal of the middle stanza at 14:47 assisted by Zach Aston-Reese and Jordan Dumais to make it 2-1 Monsters through two. Grand Rapids’ Gabriel Seger added a tally at 9:41 in the third to tie it 3-3 but Cleveland’s Marrelli scored the game winner at 11:34 assisted by Owen Sillinger and Del Bel Belluz on the power play to claim a 3-2 win.
Cleveland’s Zach Sawchenko stopped 23 shots for the win while Grand Rapids’ Sebastian Cossa made 22 saves in defeat.
