Monsters beat Admirals 5-4, completing weekend sweep
BY ANDREW GUARINO
HOCKEY WRITER
(CLEVELAND, OH) - Cleveland Monsters defeated the Milwaukee Admirals by a score of 5-4 Saturday afternoon from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse by a score of 5-4. Coming off an exciting and physical game Friday night, could the game live up to the hype? Also, Brad Thiessen makes his season debut in the net. Thiessen’s last start came May 7 of 2019 in a loss to the Toronto Marlies.
The first period wasn't nearly as chippy as I expected, but it did have its moments of excitement. The Admirals opened the scoring at 16:04. Daniel Carr made a nice move to get around Adam Clendening, who was then able to poke the puck through his legs to score.
The second period saw the Monsters get on the board at 3:02. Trey Fix Wolansky snipped a puck from the face-off dot to beat the Milwaukee goalie glove side. It was a power play goal with the assists going to Dillion Simpson and Adam Clendening. The Monsters didn’t wait long to take the lead and in just 63 seconds later, they took the lead. Kole Sherwood came into the zone and fired it off the pads of the Milwaukee goalie; the rebound was picked by Marko Dano along the wall. He fed out in front to Derek Barach who backhanded it in. With two minutes left to play in the second, the Admirals tied things up with the Monsters. Anthony Richard revived a pass from Tommy Novak and he fired a wrister past Thiessen. Tying things up before the second intermission wasn’t good enough for Milwaukee. They got a 3-2 lead going into a break. Adam Clendening turned the puck over and it fed a break away by Frederick Gaudreau, who with some fancy stick work was able to beat Thiessen high glove side.
The Monsters tied things up just 3:34 into the third. Trey Fix Wolansky was along the boards and passed to the center where Stefan Matteau was waiting. He fired a puck past Troy Grosenick to tied the game. At 10:15 the Admirals regained the lead for good. Cole Schneider fired a shot off Brads pads the rebound landed on the stick off Rem Pitlick who easily was able to tap it in the net. With time running out in the third, the Monsters tied things at 4. Dillion Simpson was on the blue line, sent a pass towards the crease that winded up finding its way into the net. Overtime looked very likely for this game, Monsters didn’t feel like going to overtime though. Adam Clendening took a shot from the blue line and with good screening in front was able to score to give Cleveland the lead for good.
Looking back at keys to the game. Play physical, stay out of the box and help the goalie. The Monsters were great in helping out Brad Thiessen. The Monsters didn’t play to physical but neither did the Admirals. The Monsters took five minor penalties in the game.
The Monsters started Brad Thiessen in the net and stopped 28/32 shots. The Admirals countered with Troy Grosenick who stopped 25/30 shots. The third star went to Brad Thiessen with this 28 saves, second star to Adam Clendening with a goal and an assist and third star to Dillion Simpson with a goal and 3 assists.
Next up for Cleveland is the Binghamton Devils next Friday night from Binghamton. Key one will be play hard but preserve some energy as it’s a beginning of three games in three days. Key two will be to get the penalty kill back on track after giving up two power play goals vs Milwaukee. The final key will be, use our speed to our advantage.
POSTED 01/04/2020 18:01
Lake County Sentinel
