Wolves defeat Monsters in OT THE SCORE

Any chance of making the playoffs realistically ended before Groundhog Day, but that doesn’t mean the Monsters don’t have something to play for in the final 24 days of the season.

The Monsters, Calder Cup champions in 2016, fell to 21-33-6-3 on March 20 with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Chicago Wolves at Quicken Loans Arena. It was their first home game after a 2-4-1-0 road trip.

This is the 11th season for the Monsters, and unless they pick up the pace in the final 13 games, they will finish with the fewest victories since the team started play WOLVES 3, MONSTERS 2

in Cleveland in the 2007-08 season. They finished 26-416-7 that season when AHL teams played 80 games.

The winning goal for the Wolves was scored by T.J. Tynan, a member of the championship team two years ago.

Tynan was called for tripping with 1:04 left in regulation. An errant pass by the Monsters’ Terry Broadhurst crossed the center of the ice just as Tynan was exiting the penalty box on his way to the Chicago bench. He got the puck on his blade, skated in on the Monsters’ net and shot it between the legs of goalie Mattiss Kivlenieks for the deciding goal.

“I took a bad penalty at the end of the game,” Tynan said. “Those guys did a great job killing the penalty, and I just got lucky. They made a great play in front, and I was fortunate to get a breakaway. We’ll take the two points, for sure.”

Tynan leads the Wolves in scoring with 13 goals and 42 assists.

The Monsters played hard, but couldn’t finish the job. Alex Broadhurst scored both goals for the home team. His shot 1:13 into the third period from the left faceoff circle back to the top right corner of the net tied the game, 2-2. It was one of only six shots on net for the Monsters in the final period.

Tynan’s goal 1:05 into overtime was the only shot on net for either team after regulation.

“Coming off a road trip for 15 days, you usually have a letdown,” Monsters coach John Madden said. “I thought we started slow, but I thought we did some smart things with the puck early to find our legs.

“Staying out of the penalty box is one of the better things we could do. We’re taking a lot of minors. It takes the flow out of our game. Some guys don’t get ice and we can’t get anything going, but overall I was proud of the guys. I thought they completed really hard.”

The Monsters and Wolves meet again March 22.