The Cleveland Monsters beat the Hartford Wolf Pack (22-29-4-2) 3-1 on Friday night at PeoplesBank Arena. With the win, the Monsters are now 32-19-6-1 and are currently in third place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Cleveland’s Guillaume Richard cracked things open just 3:05 into the contest with a goal off feeds from James Malatesta and Roman Ahcan for the 1-0 lead. Hartford’s Brendan Brisson scored at 13:17 to force a tie game through 20 minutes. Richard added his second tally at 19:30 of the second frame with helpers from Justin Pearson and Dysin Mayo to take the Monsters into the final period up 2-1. Forward Jack Williams earned the empty net goal with Mikael Pyyhtiä on the lone assist at 19:52 of the third stanza to seal a 3-1 victory for Cleveland.
Cleveland’s Zach Sawchenko stopped 18 shots before leaving due to injury, followed by Ivan Fedotov turning aside 9 shots for the win while Hartford’s Dylan Garand made 27 saves in defeat.