Oglevie hat trick leads Americans past Monsters 3- 2
BY ANDREW GUARINO
HOCKEY WRITER
(CLEVELAND, OH) - The Rochester Americans extended their point streak to ten games,defeating the Cleveland Monsters 3-2 Saturday night from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Monsters got off to a hot start scoring just 35 seconds in. A great pass from Nathan Gerbe led to Kevin Stenlund streaking into the Americans’ zone and firing a wrist shot passed Johansson stick side.
Secondary assist went to Gabriel Carlsson. The Americans tied things up at 7:58 when Kevin Porter won a face-off back to Lawrence Pilut who fired a slap shot, which tipped off Andrew Oglevie’s stick and went in. With time almost expired, the referees did the Monsters a favor as a quick whistle prevented an American goal. A shot tricked through passed Vehvilainen but the whistle already sounded to stop play.
It was the Americans’ turn to get off to a quick start as just 32 seconds into the second they scored.
Brett Murray’s shot his the post and then Kevin Porter’s shot was blocked, but ultimately Andrew
Oglevie picked up the puck, which went off Vehvilainen’s body and in. It was the second power play goal for the Americans. The lead did not last long as the Monsters tied things up at 5:57. Ryan Maclnnis came into the zone and passed to Dillon Simpson; he passed to Markus Hannikainen who was on the side of the net and he then passed back to Simpson, who was directly in front of Johansson and poked it in 5-hole. There was no other scoring in the second, but the physicality picked up as the period continued.
At 4:49 into the third, the Americans regained the lead. Brett Murray was on the stick side of
Vehvilainen who was trying to freeze the puck. Murray flipped the puck over him where Andrew Oglevie put it in the net for his ninth of the season and third of the game, getting a hat trick.
Looking back at the keys of the game – the first key was to take more shots and the Monsters did this.
The second key was to take advantage of the power play; the Monsters were 0 of 4. The final key was to get back to having success on the penalty kill; two-thirds of the Americans’ goals came on the power play. With time running down, Stefan Matteau was in front of the goal and was hit by a Kevin Stenlund slap shot and he was in some visible pain getting off the ice.
The Monsters started Veini Vehvilainen In net; he stopped 24 of 27 shots faced. The Americans
countered with Jonas Johansson in net who stopped 24 of 26 shots. The first star of the game went to Andrew Oglevie who had three goals; the second star went to Kevin Porter with three assists; and third star went to Kevin Stenlund with a goal.
Next up for Cleveland is the Laval Rocket who are currently 12-8-3-0 with 27 points and are sitting in
fourth place in the North Division. The first key to the game will be to get back to the strong penalty kill; the second key will be to continue the strong defense - despite the three American goals, the Monsters player really great defense; and the third key will be to get bodies in front of the net. Zac Dalpe has missed four straight games for the Monsters and when Coach Eaves was asked about it post game, he said “ It was going to be awhile and he was dealing with a chronic situation.”
POSTED 11/30/2019 23:25
Lake County Sentinel
