The Cleveland Monsters beat the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 7-1 on Friday night at Rocket Arena. With the win, the Monsters are now 32-21-5-6 and in fifth place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Roman Ahcan scored the lone goal of the opening frame at 4:09 off feeds from Cole Clayton and Hunter McKown putting Cleveland ahead 1-0 after 20 minutes. Mikael Pyyhtia converted on the man advantage at 6:38 of the second period with helpers from Trey Fix-Wolansky and Luca Del Bel Belluz extending the lead to 2-0. The Monsters’ offense continued rolling when Ahcan recorded his second marker of the night at 8:00 assisted by Joseph LaBate followed by Guillaume Richard’s first professional goal at 10:28 off a feed from Rocco Grimaldi bringing the score to 4-0 heading into the final intermission. James Malatesta notched a tally at 5:58 with helpers from Fix-Wolansky and Del Bel Belluz, but the Penguins responded with a power-play marker from Vasily Ponomarev at 7:28 cutting the score to 5-1. Cleveland kept the offensive pressure on with a power-play goal from Del Bel Belluz at 17:00 assisted by Drew Bavaro pushing the lead to 6-1. Ahcan completed his bid for his first professional hat trick with a tally on the man advantage at 19:00 with helpers from Clayton and Richard bringing the final score to 7-1.
Cleveland’s Jet Greaves made 30 saves for the win while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Filip Larsson stopped 29 shots in defeat.
The Monsters host their final game rebranded as the Cleveland Pierogies Hockey Club against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, at Rocket Arena
