Monsters rebound, beat Comets 3-2     
 BY ANDREW GUARINO
    HOCKEY WRITER
(CLEVELAND, OH) - The Cleveland Monsters defeated the Utica Comets from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Saturday afternoon by a final score of 3-2. The Monsters earned a weekend split.

David Pope opened the scoring for Utica while the Comets were on the power play. Carter Camper was in the right faceoff circle and passed to the left side of Brad Thiessen where David Pope was and he tapped it in. Just over three minutes later the Monsters got their tenth short-handed goal of the year to tie the game when Calvin Thurkauf skated over the blue into the Comets' zone and beat their goalie top glove side. With less than two minutes to go in the first, Adam Clendening was at the blue and passed to the left faceoff dot where Stefan Matteau one-timed the puck into the net.

The second period saw the hitting between the two teams pick up. Just 70 seconds in, the Monsters got their second power play goal of the game. Marko Dano passed from the right face off down to Trey Fix-Wolansky who was cutting through the crease; it went off his stick and into the net. At 16:04 of the second there was the game's first 5-5 goal. A blast from the blue line from Jalen Chatfield went off of Thiessen's pads. The rebound went on to the stick of Lucas Jasek who put the rebound right under the glove of Brad to make the score 3-2.

Looking back at keys to the game -get back to winning, play with energy and not have as many turnover - the Monsters definitely played with more energy than they did Friday and they did limit their turnovers, which resulted in a Monsters' win.

The Monsters started Brad Thiessen in net who stopped 26 of 28 shots faced; the Comets countered with Zane Mclntyre who stopped 24 of 27 shots faced. The first star went to Stefan Matteau with a goal and an assist, second star went to Trey Fix-Wolansky with a goal, and the third star was awarded to Calvin Thurkauf with a goal.

Next up for Cleveland is the Rochester Americans Wednesday night from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse as the home stand continues. The Americans currently sit second in the North Division with a 25-13-2-6 record with 56 points. The first key will be continue to get the puck to Trey Fix-Wolansky who's riding an eight game point streak. Key two will be to continue to take advantage of power play opportunities, and the final key will be to limit rebounds for the opposing team and to help the goalie when rebounds happen. 
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​POSTED 02/01/2020 18:45
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