Feb 6-12: CBJ Prospects Week in Review – Looking at the Cleveland Monsters

Hello all due to some technical difficulties we’ll only be covering the Monsters action this week.

It was a busy week for Cleveland that started off on an odd Tuesday-Wednesday back-to-back.

First up was a game in Milwaukee. Sonny Milano opened the scoring when he intercepted a pass while the Admirals were on the power play. Milano was off to the races and scored his second shorthanded goal of the season. Oliver Bjorkstrand then gave the Monsters a 2-0 lead on the power play after taking a cross-crease pass from Daniel Zaar. 1:13 later, Sonny struck again when he took a pass from Joe Pendenza in front to make it 3-0 Monsters going into the break. Early in the second, off a turnover, the Monsters entered the zone on a four on one with Zaar passing to Oliver who waited, and waited, and waited before hammering a shot for his second goal of the night and 14^th of the season. The Admirals scored a late second period goal to make it 4-1 and that’s how the game would end. Anton Forsberg made 38 saves in his 14^th win of the season and 60^th in the AHL.

After that game, the Monsters loaded up the bus and it was off to Iowa for a game against the Wild who were hoping to get some revenge for their back to back shutout losses last week. To start, they would get it as the Wild took a 1-0 lead and that’s how the game would stay until late into the third. With only 1:12 left, the Monsters were on the power play and playing with the extra skater after pulling Brad Thiessen. Dean Kukan took a pass and hammered a shot that made it past the Wild’s goalie to tie it at one. The game went to OT and it wouldn’t take long to resolve. Milano entered the zone and passed to Pendenza who carried the puck with speed and droped a pass to Jamie Sifers who skated into the slot and hammered a shot to make it 2-1 for his fifth of the season. Thiessen earned the win and made 17 saves in the victory.

After that it was time to head back to Cleveland for a pair against Manitoba. And Joonas Korpisalo headed back to Cleveland too so he could get some game action after sitting in Columbus for a bit. The Monsters opened the scoring when Kukan found Bjorkstrand who drew the attention of every Moose before passing to Markus Hannikainen. The Finn snapped a shot from the circle to make it 1-0. The Moose scored two in a row before Dillon Heatherington found the back of the net for the first time all season. Dillon got behind the defense (to whoever lost track of the 6’5” defenseman, coach would like a word) and scored on a backhand to tie the game. The game went to a shootout and Bjorkstrand and Zaar scored to secure the Monsters a 2-1 victory. In the win, Korpisalo made a season high 39 saves and stopped three of four in the shootout.

In the rematch, it was the third game in a row that the Monsters gave up the first goal but, once again they were able to climb out of it. Early in the third, Sifers dumped the puck into the zone and Jordan Maletta did the rest his darn self. Maletta gathered the puck and scored on a wrap around for his seventh of the season. The game, like the previous ones, headed to a shootout. The teams each scored in the first round and then traded saves until Manitoba’s Dan DeSalvo scored in the fourth round to clinch the win for the Moose. Korpisalo made 20 saves in the loss and stopped three of four in the shootout.

Quickly, the Monsters will be without the services of enforcer Brett Gallant for the next four games as he was suspended for an elbow to the head to Manitoba’s Quniton Howden in the second period.

There you have it folks, a quick update on the Jackets prospects in Cleveland. We’ll be back next week with a full recap on the Jackets prospects playing in the CHL.