Vehvilainen Monsters shutout Devils 3-0
BY ANDREW GUARINO
HOCKEY WRITER
(CLEVELAND, OH) - The Cleveland Monsters defeated the Binghamton Devils 3-0 Friday night from the Rocket Mortgage Field House. It was a huge win to get out of the 8th seed in the North Division and to rebound from a disappointing game on Wednesday night.
The first peorid was a quiet one. With less than 60 seconds to go in the first period, the Monsters got the first goal of the game. Stefan Matteau lost control of the puck behind the red line, it went out in front of the net where Derek Barach picked it up and fired a lazar beam over Cory Schneider's right shoulder.
The second period was much more intriguing. The Monsters were on the power play, and Adam Clendening was on the blue line he one timed a puck, which Schneider originally stopped. Paul Bittner picked up the rebound and was able to poke it into the net. Not even 60 seconds later, Bryan Moore hit a Devil hard in the corner this drew about three Devils onto Moore. Brett Gallant didn't like that and he went into help Moore out, and Fortier did too as he got into it with Michael McLeod. At the end of the period Kole Sherwood was on a breakaway, as time expired he skated around the net and Josh Jacobs decided to tap him into the boards, after this Sherwood dropped Jacobs, each revived two for roughing.
The third period was surprisingly not an overly physical one. The Monsters did spend a lot of time in their defensive zone in the third but were able to keep the Devils out of the net.
Following up on keys to the game. Get the puck to Trey Fix- Wolansky, take advantage of power play opportunities and limit rebounds. Derek Barach got an empty net goal with less than 60 seconds away. Trey didn't get a point but was still very noticeable, the Monsters were 1/2 on the power play, and Vehvilainen did a pretty good job at limiting rebounds.
The Devils started Cory Schneider in net he stopped 17/19 shots faced. The Monsters countered with Veini Vehvilainen in net who stopped all 34 shots he faced for his third shut out of the season. That performance earned Vehvilainen the first star, second star went to Derek Barach with two goals and the third star Paul Bittner with a goal.
Next up for Cleveland is a rematch with the Binghamton Devils on Sunday from Rocket Mortgage Field house at 1pm. Key one will be, get two points, key two will be play physical but don't let emotions get the best of us and key three will be a repeat of Friday nights game as it was a beauty from start to finish.
POSTED 02/07/2020 23:45
Lake County Sentinel
