Hershey Wins A Thrilling Game 7, Ending The Cleveland Monsters Season
Trey Fix-Wolansky(3) and James Malatesta(1) provided the offense in the game 7 loss against Hershey. Jet Greaves made some outstanding saves to keep the game in reach for the Monsters. Young Denton Mateychuk, who made his pro debut in game 4 of the series, had another assist. He played in four games this series and had three assists.
The Hershey Bears would score 7:38 into the overtime period to end the Monsters season in heartbreak fashion. Hershey has now earned a chance to play for a second straight AHL title.
As much as this loss hurts for fans and the team, battling back from a 3-0 deficit to force a game 7, and then scoring late to send that game to overtime, is something to be proud of. After dropping the first three games of the series, Cleveland fans would say there was always a chance, but deep down they knew it was a very long shot to come back and win the series, especially playing game 7 in Hershey. They came close and almost pulled it off.
And now the Monsters will need to deal with the off-season. They have six unrestricted free agents, including their Captain Brendan Gaunce, Malcolm Subban, and Nick Blankenburg. GM Chris Clark is going to have some work to do with this team, but reinforcements should be on their way in the form of Jordan Dumais, Luca Pinelli, and possibly Denton Mateychuk.
The future is bright for the Cleveland Monsters.
Final Stats
Cleveland Monsters AppPlayer Stats
- Trey Fix-Wolansky scored his third of the playoffs. He also recorded his 5th assist.
- James Malatesta scored a late goal to tie the game. It was his first goal of the postseason.
- Denton Mateychuk recorded his third assist in four games.
- David Jiricek tallied his 8th assist of the playoffs.
- Jet Greaves made 27 saves on 30 Hershey shots.
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