Cleveland Finds Their Scoring Spark

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Monsters have struggled to put points on the board all season. Finding the back of the net has felt like being on the hunt for the notorious Lake Erie Monster. You know it’s possible. You know it exists. But finding the scientific proof has been rather tough.

Earlier this month, Monsters Head Coach Mike Eaves compared the lack of scoring to having writer’s block. “Sometimes writers get writer’s block and they get stuck. Sometimes goal scoring is that same way,” explained Coach Eaves. “There’s this flow and ebb that goes with creativity and offense is a lot about creativity.” 

Monsters forward Brendan Gaunce brought the same sentiment to Cleveland’s scoring woes. “Scoring is kind of a fickle thing. It goes up and down,” said Gaunce. “As a team, we just try and play the same way to create the same chances. Then, once in a while, they’ll go in.”

The Monsters got over their metaphorical creative hump on Friday night when they beat the Syracuse Crunch, 5-1.

From the drop of the first puck to the final horn, the Monsters played a complete game. Monsters forward Cole Cassels said since they beat Syracuse on Wednesday, Cleveland was ready for the Crunch to come out playing a hard game on Friday. “I think we matched that intensity right off the get go,” explained Cassels. “And didn’t really lose it for 60 minutes.”

Despite having a commanding 5-1 lead over the Crunch with five minutes left in the game, the Monsters hunted for their sixth goal of the night until the horn sounded. Cassels thinks playing until the final moment showed three things: “Our determination, our will to win, and our compete level.” He then went on to say the team also wanted to help goaltender Daniil Tarasov out “because he kept us in there.”

Gaunce echoed Cassels’ praise of Tarasov, stating: “It helps when your goalie plays the way he (Tarasov) did tonight. Gives you a lot of confidence.” He then went on to explain that some of the plays the Monsters made on Friday might not have been made or even be successful if they didn’t trust Tarasov. 

Cleveland’s Assistant Coach Mark Letestu was impressed with the way the Monsters played and felt like the team truly deserved the win. “It’s been hard for us to score goals,” said Letestu. “So, for them to break out and score five in the kind of dirty hard ways we have been talking about, it’s a nice reward for those guys putting in the work.”

Heading into Sunday’s game, the challenge became keeping that same positive goal scoring energy rolling through a day off, traveling across international borders, and into another team’s barn. Coach Letestu explained that, “Toronto’s notoriously really well coached and play well at home” and that it was “going to be another grind.”

Sunday afternoon’s game was definitely a grind to the end. The Monsters opened the scoring against the Marlies 4:12 into the game when defender Jake Christiansen received an errant pass at the blue line and swept it down the slot for the goal. After Christiansen’s goal, the Toronto Marlies quickly took control of the game scoring four goals in a period and a half of play. Luckily for the Monsters, forward Liam Foudy reignited the scoring spark in the last 54 seconds of the second period, and it carried over into the third. The Monsters scored three more goals in the final regulation frame to keep the dream of winning alive. 

When all was said and done, the Monsters took down the Marlies 6-5 in overtime. This brought Cleveland’s scoring total to 11 goals over the course of two games.

For the time being, Cleveland’s scoring woes seem to be over.