Monsters outlast Admirals 3-2   
 BY ANDREW GUARINO
    HOCKEY WRITER
(CLEVELAND, OH) - The Cleveland Monsters defeated the Milwaukee Admirals Friday night in what could have been the best game of the year. 


The first period was a heavy hitting affair, with both teams throwing a number of big hits. The Monsters got their first goal of the game at 18:32. Stefan Matteau passed across the lane to Anton Karlsson who shot and beat Milwaukee’s goalie’s 5-hole. It was his Karlsson’s second goal of the season. The secondary assist went to Trey Fix-Wolansky. 

The second period is when all hell broke loose. About halfway through the period, Dan DeSalvo took a puck to the ear and was bleeding as he left the ice. After that, Justin Scott was playing defense in front of Vehvilainen and took some pretty severe cross checks from Mathieu Olivier; Somerby had a word with Oliver before multiple guys got involved. Paul Bittner came flying in and threw a cross check at Arvin Atwal, and those two dropped the gloves. It was a very good fight which ended in a draw. It took a while to get things sorted out, but ended with Olivier getting two for roughing; Atwal, five for fighting; Bittner, five for cross checking, five for fighting, and a game misconduct for cross checking. After Bittner got a major for cross checking, the Admirals tied things up. A wicked blast shot from Matt Donovan beat Vehvilainen’s stick side. Shortly after, with a little bit more than a minute on the Bittner major, Doyle Somerby took a minor for delay of game, and the Monsters had a 5/3 to kill off. The Monsters did it successfully. Then with a little bit more than a minute to play in the second, Stefan Matteau and Josh Healey dropped the gloves in a good fight. 

Dan DeSalvo did not come out for the third period. The Monsters were on the power play at 7:46 of the third when Adam Clendening took a big slap shot from the blue line and it was tipped in front by Sam Vigneault. With less than two minutes to play in regulation, the Admirals tied things up again. Anthony Richard got the goal with the assist going to Rem Pitlick. 

The Admirals controlled most of the overtime period, but with one rush down the ice by the Monsters they got the two points. Trey Fix-Wolansky went flying out of his own zone with speed and passed back to Stefan Matteau, who got the game winning goal. 


The Monsters started Veini Vehvilainen in net and he stopped 28/30 shots faced. The Admirals countered with Connor Ingram, who stopped 19/21 shots faced. The first star went to Stefan Matteau who had a goal and an assist, second star went to Sam Vigneault with a goal, and the third star went to Vehvilainen with 28/30 saves. 

Following up on keys of the game: 1) make sure to give Vehvilainen help; 2) work on pass connections; and 3) win face offs. The Monsters gave Vehvilainen lots of help; the passes were stick to stick; and I lost track of the face offs half way through. 

Next up for Cleveland is a rematch with the Admirals tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. The first key will be to play physical, second key will be to stay out of the box, and the third key will be to help the goalie as whoever plays tomorrow will have their hands full. It was a very physical game tonight and when Coach Eaves was asked about what he preaches in those situations he had this to say, “ it’s a little bit of both ( preaching them composure and making sure they stay aggressive) he went on to say, “ it has been a long time since we have had a game like this and the guys stood up for each other which goes a long way for a team”.
Follow us on Twitter @SportsSentinel
​POSTED 01/03/2020 03:32
HomeCommunity InformationEditorialNews ArchivesSports

Lake County Sentinel