Cleveland Monsters top Syracuse to take early lead in Calder Cup division final series (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It took two periods for the Monsters to shake off the rust of a six-day layoff between playoff games, but they got another big-time goal in this 2024 postseason as Justin Pearson’s third period short-handed goal was the difference in a 1-0 win over the Syracuse Crunch at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The Monsters lead the North Division finals of the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs 1-0 with game two set for 1 p.m. in Cleveland on Saturday.

“Good teams do find a way to win when they’re not at their best and I thought we did a good job in the third period we had a lot more to give and getting to our game a little bit more,” Monsters head coach Trent Vogelhuber said. “Obviously the (Pearson) short-handed goal is huge, but we generated more opportunities and had more chances to score there.

“It’s a credit to the group snapping back into it there with 20 minutes to go (and) a chance to win the game after we left a lot of meat on the bone and getting it done.”

It was hard to say if the layoff between games had an effect on the Monsters, but Vogelhuber said once the team got back to the basics in the third period things started to click for the group.

“The first two periods we don’t even need to get into, it was pretty ugly I thought,” Vogelhuber said. “They were pretty clearly the better team and it all stemmed from puck decisions, execution in the neutral zone then you’re defending a ton more and then you don’t have any energy to go on the offense.

“In the third period we dumbed it down, started skating and what do you know? You get some offensive opportunities and you play a little bit better. A lot to improve on, but glad we got the win.”

It was night where the Monsters had to fight off several penalties as the power play unit defined the game both on offense and defense. Pearson’s short-handed goal was based completely on will as the Crunch went through a line change and were caught sleeping with the man advantage.

While Pearson earned the game’s second star, the No. 1 star was the Monsters’ constant throughout this postseason as goaltender Jet Greaves earned the clean sheet with 28 saves.

Greaves was locked in from the first puck drop while maintaining his cool, calm demeanor in net even with the game on the line with the Crunch on the power play for final two minutes of the game. Facing a 6-4 disadvantage with the Syracuse goalie pulled, Greaves made a pair of game-saving stops that fed into the win.

“This time of year (when) you’ve got a goalie back there who’s feeling good about himself, it gives you a chance to win every night even when your team might not be at your best” Vogelhuber said. “Penalty kill dug in outside of a couple failed clears which gave them some more zone time and opportunities, we’ve got to clean that up, but the penalty kill was good. Blocked shots, pretty good rotations and obviously the goal tender is a huge part of that and in some pretty key moments especially right there at the end.”

Greaves gave credit to the penalty kill squad getting the job done on both ends.

“I thought the kill was great tonight, that’s obviously something we really want to harp on in these playoffs,” Greaves said. “That’s how you win and lose games and I thought the guys did a great job of protecting those seams and getting those kills when we needed them.”