Monsters Stumble in 5-2 Loss to Checkers

The AHL’s Cleveland Monsters fell to the Charlotte Checkers 5-2 on Wednesday night at Bojangles’ Coliseum. With the loss, the Monsters are now 11-8-1-1 and are currently in fifth place in the AHL’s North Division standings with 24 points.

The Checkers grabbed a 2-0 lead in the opening period with a power-play goal from Kyle Wood at 2:46 and a Janne Kuokkenen even-strength marker at 5:56, but Monsters blue-liner Adam Clendening converted with the extra man at 11:14 thanks to feeds from Nathan Gerbe and Kevin Stenlund to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes of play.

Monsters forward Jakob Lilja scored a power-play goal at 3:59 of the second period, courtesy of Ryan MacInnis’ lone assist, to tie the game, but Charlotte responded with two five-on-five goals, from Julien Gauthier at 10:08 and Jake Bean at 16:16, to take a 4-2 lead into the final intermission. The Checkers sealed the game at 16:20 of the third period with an even-strength tally from Steven Lorentz in a 5-2 Charlotte win.

Matiss Kivlenieks made 34 saves in the loss while Charlotte’s Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 20 pucks for the win.

The Monsters return home to face the Rochester Americans on Saturday with a 7:00 p.m. puck drop at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Follow the games with full coverage on SportsTime Ohio, ALT 99.1, AHLTV and the Monsters Hockey Network.

Stay up to date on all Monsters news with the Monsters Mobile App presented by University Hospitals available to download at the Apple Store or Google Play Store. Be sure to follow the Monsters on Twitter @monstershockey, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/monstershockey, and on Instagram @monstershockey.

Scoring:

1st 2nd 3rd OT SO Final CLE 1 1 0 - - 2 CHA 2 2 1 - - 5

Shots/Special Teams:

Shots PP PK PIM CLE 22 2/6 1/2 6 min / 3 inf CHA 39 1/2 4/6 49 min / 11 inf

Goaltenders:

Goaltender Outcome Saves GA Record CLE Kivlenieks L 34 5 6-2-2 CHA Nedeljkovic W 20 2 4-5-1

Cleveland Record: 11-8-1-1, 5th North Division

Charlotte Record: 8-8-3-0, 7th Atlantic Division

GAME SHEET – GAME PHOTOS – GAME HIGHLIGHTS*

*Game highlights will appear as soon as possible following video processing.