Much of regulation was a low-event, tightly contested battle. John Leonard opened the scoring early for the home side, but strikes at the tail end of both the first and second periods put Cleveland in the driver’s seat through 40.
The Checkers couldn’t quite find the equalizer until Matt Luff redirected a point shot from Trevor Carrick to finally draw the score even with just over two minutes to go in regulation.
The celebration was short-lived, however, as Cleveland forward Trey Fix-Wolansky was awarded a penalty shot just 16 seconds later and converted the chance to reclaim the lead for the visitors.
The home side didn’t have another rally in them, and an empty-net dagger sealed the deal for the Monsters and saddled the Checkers with a weekend split.
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameI really liked the start to be honest with you. It was kind of a game plan. There were a couple of tunovers that we don’t like because we want to play a certain way, and then they gained momentum off that and we got stuck in our zone for a bit and took a penalty, and then the momentum shifted. I give that team a ton of credit. I thought they played with some physicality. I look at it as a positive, because it’s an education for a lot of players that it’s a tough league and it's tough to win. You have to play a certain way and be committed to it. We’ll just keep moving forward and taking lessons from when we win and when we lose, so there’s a lot of lessons to be had over the weekend.
Kinnear on Ken Appleby
He was great. The last one on the penalty shot, I’d have to check the rule book on that one to be quite honest with you. He kept us in the game. After that turnover we were kind of chasing it and then we’re on the kill and using guys too much and that hurts our five-on-five game. Lesson learned and move on.
Kinnear on if he received an explanation for the penalty shot call
Nope. I’m looking for one, for sure.
