The Cleveland Monsters have locked up a first-round bye in the Calder Cup Playoffs, here's what comes next

It’s been a long time coming, but the AHL regular season has finally wrapped for the Columbus Blue Jackets’ affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. They closed out their 2025–26 campaign on Sunday afternoon with a convincing 6–4 win over a high-flying Grand Rapids Griffins squad (Detroit’s affiliate).

Cleveland fell behind 3–1 in the second period before two quick strikes — a power‑play goal from Mikael Pyythia and an equalizer from Justin Pearson — pulled them even just past the midway mark. They entered the third down 4–3, but dominated the final 20 minutes with goals from Luca Pinelli, Zach Aston‑Reese, and an empty-net dagger from captain Brendan Gaunce.

After months of guessing and projection-watching, the Calder Cup Playoffs bracket is finally set — and with today’s win over Grand Rapids, the Monsters are locked in a solid seed and a first‑round bye.

Their opponent: a very tough Syracuse Crunch (Tampa) team led by the AHL’s top point‑getter, Jakob Pelletier, and one of the league’s best statistical goaltenders this season, Ryan Fanti. Syracuse also holds home‑ice advantage in this 2‑3 series format.

Games 1 and 2 will be in Cleveland on April 24 and April 26. If the Monsters sweep those, they’d only need to steal one in Syracuse, with Games 3, 4, and 5 scheduled for May 1, 3, and 9.

If Cleveland manages to upset the second‑seeded Crunch, they’ll face the winner of Laval (Montreal) vs. Toronto/Rochester (Buffalo) in the Divisional Final.

The Monsters enter the postseason mostly healthy and bolstered by reinforcements: Luca Del Bel Belluz, their leading scorer, and Zach Aston‑Reese, who returned to the AHL after Columbus’ NHL season ended.

As they go into the playoffs, the Monsters will go as Del Bel Belluz, Mikael Pyythia, Owen Sillinger, Guillaume Richard, and Dysin Mayo go. Cleveland has leaned heavily on its top defensive pairing of Richard and Mayo and its top line of Sillinger – LDBB – Pyythia to drive scoring and eat minutes all year, and that won’t change now.

Secondary scoring has shown up in flashes from Luca Pinelli, Jack Williams, and Brendan Gaunce, but the bottom nine forwards will need to contribute more if Cleveland wants to escape the first round.

Even more pressing: the bottom four defensemen must elevate their play. Richard and Mayo are a combined +36 this season. The presumed bottom four? A combined –52. Trent Vogelhuber needs significantly more from that group if the Monsters hope to make a deep run.

Game 1 against Syracuse is Friday at 7 PM.

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