In a rematch of Saturday night’s battle, the Monsters and Bears took the ice with different goals. The Bears looked to continue the success of opening night’s 7-3 victory, while Cleveland looked for a quick bounce back after the tough loss. There were a couple lineup changes from the Bears, as Hershey made four changes, with the goalies switching out for the back to back and then Spencer Smallman coming in for Garrett Roe, Brennan Saulnier coming in for Matt Strome and Brad Hunt in for Jake Massie. Cleveland swapped goalies as well, with Zach Sawchenko coming in for Jet Greaves, with that being their only change from yesterday.
First Period
Both teams got out to a quicker start than Saturday night’s game, but it would be the Monsters who took advantage. Off a 3 on 2 transition break, Clay Stevenson made an excellent crosscrease save on the original chance but the puck sat perfectly for a charging Roman Ahcan, who made no mistake as the Monsters took a 1-0 lead.
The Bears would have two opportunities to tie it up on the power play this period and both did look better than the first two on Saturday night. Brad Hunt in particular was impressive on his debut captaining the power play from the point. The Bears created some solid opportunities, but nothing came of it and Cleveland went into the first intermission with the 1-0 lead.
Second Period
The second period is what would end up being the Bears downfall last night. The Bears did successfully kill off an early penalty, but a defensive zone turnover down low by the Bears ended up in a Trey Fix-Wolansky goal and the Monsters took a 2-0 lead.
The Monsters would once again end up in some penalty trouble though that saw the Bears end up on a 5 on 3 opportunity. It took a bit, but right after the first penalty ended, Ivan Miroshnichenko found a little daylight and blasted it past Sawchenko.
However, the momentum seemed to turn after a late Bears power play went nowhere, bringing momentum to the Monsters. Riley Sutter would head to the box for a trip soon after that and the Monsters would make no mistake, with Luca Del Bel Belluz banking one in off Stevenson to make it 3-1 Cleveland.
It would only get worse for the Bears at the end of the period, as an offensive zone turnover turned into a Monsters three on one, which Del Bel Belluz slammed home for his second of the period. The Bears went into the third down 4-1 with a mountain to climb.
Third Period
The third started off with more bad news for Hershey. Luke Philp, who hadn’t played since the first, was confirmed to be out for the rest of the game. Further knowledge of the extent of the injury is not known at this time.
The third started out slow, with not much happening, but Henrik Rybinski forced a turnover down low in the Monsters zone and found Miroshnichenko for his second of the night and suddenly it looked like the Bears could get back in the game.
The crowd also began to get back into the game and got louder after Brennan Saulnier won a fight against Corson Ceulemans. Saulnier landed multiple solid blows against Ceulemans and the crowd was pumped up after the fact.
Cleveland then failed to help their own cause. Samuel Knazko sent a puck over the glass that drew a delay of game penalty. Then, only 37 seconds into the Monsters penalty kill, Denton Mateychuk sent a puck well over the benches for another delay of game on a zone clearance attempt, giving the Bears a five on three chance.
The Bears this time capitalized on their chance, with Miroshnichenko finding the back of the net for his third of the night, marking the third straight game (going back to game 6 of the 2024 Calder Cup Finals) the Bears have played three straight games where a player has gotten a hat trick.
It seemed the momentum had fully gone the Bears way and that they were in a place to complete the comeback. But, with just under five minutes to go in the period, the puck jumped on Hardy Häman Aktell at the blue line, and it fell to the stick of the streaking James Malatesta, who made no mistake and buried the breakaway chance, restoring the Monsters two goal lead.
That was the nail in the coffin the Bears made for themselves with their second period and the coffin was sealed when Luca Del Bel Belluz finished off his own hat trick by putting home an empty netter.
The Bears return to action on the road for the first time this season, as they head to Bridgeport, CT for a Wednesday night matchup, starting at 7 p.m.
Post Game Reactions
Todd Nelson was very blunt postgame. Rather than just take a part of his comments, I have posted the full video from the Bears X/Twitter of this press conference. They are short, to the point and I would recommend giving them a listen.
Brads Hunt: “We just need to get back to our game. I think that will come as practice comes and we come together as a group with the new guys and the retuning guys. It’s going to be fine. Obviously it’s still early in the year and we have to learn from our mistakes, take the positives and move on.” – On what the Bears need to improve on going into Bridgeport.
The Chocolate Roar 