The Cleveland Monsters fell just short in game 1 of the AHL Eastern Conference Finals to the Hershey Bears in OT
Despite a miraculous comeback in the last 90 seconds of the Third Period on goals by Trey Fix-Wolansky and David Jiricek, the Monsters dropped Game 1 of the AHL Eastern Conference Finals to the Hershey Bears in Overtime.
The Cleveland Monsters showed on the night of Game 1 of the AHL Eastern Conference Finals that they would be a force to reckon with in their series with the Hershey Bears. Still, they fell just short of cashing in on some late-game heroics, ultimately falling 5 to 4 in overtime.
The first period was about weathering the storm from a relentless Hershey offensive attack for the Monsters.
Marcus Bjork would take a holding penalty just 87 seconds into the game, and while Hershey wouldn't get credit for a powerplay goal, they scored just after at 4:24 off a slick breakaway shot by Ethen Frank. Following a brilliant breakout pass by Hendrix Lapierre, Frank slipped by a slow-to-react David Jiricek and sent the puck under Jet Greaves' glove side and into the back of the net.
Jiricek's rough start to the game continued into the end of the first period, as the Blue Jackets' high-end prospect ended up taking a double minor for high sticking at 10:57, which the Monsters would kill off, only to take another high-sticking penalty at 16:20.
While Cleveland ended up killing off all three penalties, it left them very little room for offense in the first period, as they headed to the dressing room down in shots 13-3 and on the scoreboard 1-0.
Things would quickly turn around for the Monsters in the first five minutes of the second frame, however, as Hunter McKown would bury a powerplay goal off an excellent feed from Jiricek at the 3:31 mark, and another goal by Alex Whelan would set them into the lead at 4:52.
Hershey would take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission despite these early tallies, off of significant deflection from a drive to the net by Aaron Ness, gaining his first goal of the playoffs, and from a late Chase Priskie powerplay goal. Jimmy Huntington of the Bears set a hard screen in front of the undersized Greaves, and Priskie took advantage of some tricky puck rotation to score off a hard slapshot from above the right faceoff dot.
Cleveland would find themselves in an even deeper hole following yet another powerplay goal for the Bears by Hendrix Lapierre; he took advantage of a misplaced Cleveland defense and a late reaction from Jet Greaves to put Hershey up 4-2 through the five-hole.
Despite the late deficit, Cleveland battled back. With Greaves on the bench, the Monsters on the powerplay, and a sixth skater on, Trey Fix-Wolansky would finally get his first goal of the playoffs following an odd bounce off of Hunter Shepard's left pad on an attempted cross-ice feed that trickled in over the line at 18:37.
Finally, with just 19 seconds remaining, Jiricek would hit the twine off of a brilliant wrister from the high slot between the circles that sent the game into overtime. Josh Dunne deserves a screen assist from this play, as Shepard was utterly blind to Jiricek's maneuvering thanks to the big play from the 6'4" big man from Missouri.
Ultimately, however, Cleveland fell in Overtime at 7:58 off a 3-1 rush chance from Mike Vechionne. Justin Pearson attempted to glove down to play a puck in the offensive zone for the Monsters, but misplayed it, which resulted in an odd-man rush the other way and the game-winner past Greaves.
What doomed the Monsters in this one? We'll break it down on the next page.
Cleveland's Achilles' heel in this one was something that's bitten them a few times in these playoffs so far...
They took too many penalties and took them at poorly timed points in this game.
While Hershey only scored off of two of the seven attempts, their first goal came shortly after the first call against Marcus Bjork, and it seemed their penalties couldn't have come at worse times for their momentum.
They took the lead off of the Frank goal just after the Bjork penalty in the first period, again on the Priskie powerplay goal in the second, and the 4-2 lead off of the Lapierre goal in the third. Against a high-octane offense like Hershey's, the Monsters must limit their exposure to the penalty box if they want to stand a chance in the remainder of this series.
There are some positives on the other hand. I thought the Pearson - Dunne - Whelan line looked brilliant tonight. Outside of just Whelan's goal in the second period, they seemed to dominate and impose their physicality on the Bears each time they were on the ice.
Dunne and Whelan especially impressed me with their leadership abilities, tenacity, and ability always to seem to be in the right place at the right time during these playoffs. With Dunne and Whelan both being UFAs at the end of this season, they are both making strong cases to be re-signed, and in the case of Whelan, to be signed to an NHL-level deal at the conclusion of the Monster's season.
Another pairing that impressed me was Stanislav Svozil and whoever he was paired with tonight, namely Billy Sweezey or David Jiricek after the first intermission.
Svozil seemed to be calm, composed, and always willing to make the right play during the game tonight, and this was especially apparent in the late stages of the game. He played exceptionally well with Sweezey in the last dozen minutes of the third period.
Sweezey was noticeable in how Sweezey usually is: gigantic hits and playing with rugged physicality. He pushed Bears players off the puck more than once tonight and made room for his teammates to push up the ice.
As he continues to wear the A this season for the Monsters, his continued maturity and growth in the defensive end have made him a favorite of Coach Trent Voglehuber in the critical minutes of games.
Jiricek rebounded after an extremely tough start to the game and had a solid outing, finishing with a 1-2-3 line on the night. He was much more visible on both ends of the ice after the first; he cleaned up his penalty differential and puck possession as the game went on.
The Monsters will return to action against the Bears on Saturday night from the Giant Center at & PM EDT. Cleveland will hope to see their captain and one of their leading scorers, Brendan Gaunce, return by that point after he sat out tonight.
The Monsters face a vital task in Game 2 intending to take, home-ice advantage of the Bears and heading back into Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, with the series tied at a game apiece.
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