Monsters slip in front of big crowd, lose to Devils

Eric Tangradi, a thorn in the side of the Monsters as a player with the Grand Rapids Griffins when the Monsters were in the AHL West, ruined another night for the home team at Quicken Loans Arena.

Tangradi scored the winning goal with 1:08 to play Feb. 9 to lift the Binghamton Devils past the depleted Monsters, 3-2.

The loss hurts more than most because a crowd of 16,673, the largest of the season and fifth-largest in franchise history, turned out for Cleveland Sports Legends Night at the Q.

The Monsters gave the fans a show early by jumping to a 2-0 lead on a goal by Kole Sherwood 8:09 into the first period and another by Sam Vigneault 3:37 into the middle period, but they could not put the Devils away.

“We talked about it after the first period,” Coach John Madden said. “We said, ‘We’re playing great hockey. We’re dominating every aspect of the game. Don’t let them crawl back in or hang around.’

“When you let teams hang around, bad things happen. We talked about it again after the second period. When you stop playing the way that makes you successful, that’s what happens.”

The game-winner for Binghamton started at the back of the Cleveland net. John Ramage, a defenseman on the Monsters’ 2016 Calder Cup championship team, worked the puck free to pass it in front of the net. Tangradi attempted one shot but missed the puck when a Monsters player lifted his stick slightly. Tangradi reached back and gained control before the Monsters could clear it and beat goalie Jean-Francois Berube on the stick side.

The Monsters (22-214-1) called their timeout and pulled Berube, but they had trouble keeping the puck in the Binghamton end and did not get another scoring chance the rest of the game.

“There were a lot of dump-ins the third period,” Madden said. “That’s what the game dictated. Everybody’s playing defense. You wait for your chances and they played the third period a lot better than we did, that’s for sure.”

Injuries are making it difficult for the Monsters to maintain momentum. Calvin Thurkauf has missed eight straight games. Leading scorer Nathan Gerbe (10 goals, 22 assists) has missed the last four games, Sonny Milano the last five and Zac Dalpe the last eight. Kevin Stenlund has been held out of six straight games.

“We’re missing seven guys – that doesn’t help,” Madden said. “We have guys playing a lot of ice in positions they haven’t played before and they’ve been doing pretty well, but we just can’t seem to get it all together.

The Monsters are 5-10 over their last 15 games. Three of the victories came in overtime and one in a shootout. The only game they won in regulation was Feb. 6 when they beat the Checkers, 5-1, in Charlotte.

The Monsters and Devils meet in a rematch at 3 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Q