Rusty Monsters fall to Griffins

The Monsters before playing Grand Rapids on March 20 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse last played March 6 when they beat the Wolves in Chicago, 3-1.

Two weeks between hockey games is a long time in a league where teams customarily play 76-game seasons, and the rust showed in a 5-2 loss to the Griffins — the team that always seems to draw out the worst in the Monsters.

The Monsters got the only goal of the first period when Dillon Simpson poked his own rebound past Griffins goalie Pat Nagle.

Giavani Smith tied it for Grand Rapids 51 seconds into the second period and then Cleveland gained a 2-1 advantage on a low laser from the right-handed shot of Wyatt Newpower from just inside the blue line three minutes into the middle period.

Grand Rapids dominated the rest of the way and scored with two more goals in the second period. The Griffins another 5:23 into the third when Chase Pearson scored on a delayed penalty for his second goal of the game. The Griffins finished with an empty-netter with 1:27 remaining and now have beaten the Monsters in all three games the rivals have played this season. They meet five more times in this condensed 28-game season.

“We actually have had some good practices the last two weeks — high tempo,” Coach Mike Eaves said after the game.

“I think the series in Chicago (the Monsters won both games) showed us what the pace of the game had to be. We were doing that at practice, but there’s no substitute for play.

“I think we were OK with

the pace. it was executing with the puck with the pace that we were behind a little bit. That was the problem for us tonight.”

The Monsters had only three shots on goal in the second period. The Griffins had 12 shots on net while scoring three times.

The Monsters were sloppy at times in front of goaltender Brad Thiessen, who arrived

at the FieldHouse not expecting to play. He was called to duty, though, instead of Hayden Stewart getting the call.

“I thought Brad was calm,” Eaves said. “He was under a barrage at times. We just didn’t play well enough in front of him. There were times when we were in our own zone for a while and he stood tall.”

The Monsters are 4-4-1. They and the Utica Comets (6-2-0-1) have played the fewest games in the AHL. The San Diego Gulls, by comparison, have played 18 games.

A game between the Monsters and Rockford scheduled for Feb. 28 at the FieldHouse and a game in Rochester March 13 were both postponed because of COVID-19 protocols.