The Cleveland Monsters fell to the Toronto Marlies (12-12-1-1) 4-1 on Sunday night at Coca-Cola Coliseum. With the loss, the Monsters are now 10-9-3-1 and are currently in sixth place in the AHL’s North Division standings.
Riley Bezeau recorded the lone goal of the opening frame at 18:59 with helpers from Justin Pearson and Hunter McKown giving the Monsters a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. Toronto’s Matthew Barbolini scored a marker at 14:00 of the middle frame followed by a power-play tally from Benoit-Olivier Groulx at 14:46 pushing the score to 2-1 for the Marlies. Cédric Paré scored a goal for Toronto at 1:44 of the third period, but Roman Ahcan responded with a tally at 2:11 making it a one-goal game again. Despite a strong push to end the game, Cleveland fell by a final score of 3-2.
Cleveland’s Zach Sawchenko made 17 saves in defeat while Toronto’s Vyacheslav Peksa made 29 saves for the win.