CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Monsters are going to have to wait a couple more days before they can once again try to eliminate the Syracuse Crunch from the first round of the 2019 Calder Cup Playoffs.
The Monsters struggled to find shots in the attack zone over the first two periods and played from behind most of the way en route to a 2-1 loss to the Crunch in front of 9,342 fans at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.
Center Alex Barre-Boulet got the scoring started just past the midway point of the first period.
After taking possession of the puck behind the net of Monsters goaltender Brad Thiessen, Barre-Boulet skated to the side of the cage and jammed it into the crease. Following a failed first attempt, Barre-Boulet sent the puck behind Thiessen and across the line for a goal.
The Crunch doubled their lead when left winger Andy Andreoff scored a power-play goal 31 seconds into the third period.
A cross-ice pass from center Carter Verhaeghe set up Barre-Boulet for a one-timer, but Thiessen was able to turn away the attempt. However, Andreoff was in good position in front of the goal, controlled the rebound off the post and sent the puck into the net for his first tally of the series.
Cleveland’s lone goal came on a Justin Scott short-handed breakaway with 7:13 remaining in the third period.
The Monsters will try again to eliminate the Crunch in the best-of-five series when the two teams share the ice once more at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland on Thursday night.
