The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Monsters roll to big win at home
The Monsters had their way in a 5-1 win over visiting Charlotte in matinee game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Cleveland improved to 7-3-0-1 on the season, and with 15 points is in fourth place of the North Division of the American Hockey League but just two points out of first place.
The 7,889 in attendance had reason to cheer early on as the Monsters put two goals on the board in the first to take a 2-0 lead to the first intermission. Doyle Somerby put Cleveland on the board first at 11:35 of the first. Dillon Simpson’s second goal of the season made it 2-0 late in the first.
Charlotte scored in the second to make it 2-1, but Andrew Peeke’s shorthanded goal pushed the Monsters’ lead back to two.
Paul Bittner and Justin Scott then less than two minutes apart from each other to put the game out of reach at 5-1.
Veini Vehvilainen made 22 stops in net for the Monsters, who play at Grand Rapids Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. for next season, finished third.
With Martin Truex Jr. already locked in for the final four Nov. 17 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the final two spots for the title run will be determined next week at Phoenix.
Harvick entered Texas in fifth, below the cutline to race for the title.
Playoff contender Joey Logano finished fourth at the 1 ½-mile Texas track, while Truex was sixth, ahead of Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney, with Kyle Larson 12th. The other playoff contenders, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott, had accidents that put them deep in the field.
Hamlin was second in points starting the day, but he got loose coming out the fourth turn on the 81st lap and slid off the track and through the infield. He slammed hard across the grass and over asphalt.
His 28th-place finish, six laps behind Harvick, dropped Harvick to fifth and 20 points behind Logano in fourth.
Busch holds down the third spot in the standings, only two points ahead of Logano.
College football
FSU FIRES COACH >> Florida State has fired Willie Taggart, the move coming a day after the Seminoles lost to rival Miami and with the team in danger of missing a bowl for the second consecutive season.
Taggart was 9-12 in parts of two seasons at Florida State, which won the national title in 2013 and has been in a freefall for the last three seasons. The Seminoles have not been ranked this season, have played sloppily and undisciplined under Taggart, and attendance figures have plummeted.