The Cleveland Monsters doubled up the Belleville Senators Friday night in a 6-3 win in Ohio.
Filip Gustavsson made seven saves before Marcus Hogberg made 27 stops in relief as Belleville had goals from Rudolfs Balcers (2) and Tobias Lindberg. Cleveland had goals from Alex Broadhurst (3), Vitaly Abramov, Eric Robinson and Justin Scott while Jean-Francois Berube stopped 17 shots.
The Monsters exploded out of the gates in the first period as they jumped to a 3-0 lead that was kick-started by Abramov at 4:13 as he scored on an odd-man rush after stepping out of the penalty box by beating Gustavsson five-hole.
Broadhurst would grab his first of the night at 9:19 as he scored at the back door off of Adam Clendening’s pass before he made it 3-0 at 14:13 as he scored from the slot on a one-timer.
However, Belleville did find themselves on the scoreboard by the end of the first through Balcers as he wired a wrister from the right faceoff circle for his 12th of the season at 15:47.
The Monsters pushed its lead back to three in the second period through Robinson as he got a piece of Tommy Cross’ point shot on the power play to beat Hogberg at 5:39. But once again Belleville would cut into the lead as on the man advantage Balcers scored from the slot on the Sens patented power play move at 10:46.
Scott pushed the Monsters lead to 5-2 at 4:20 of the third on a lucky deflection that hit him more than anything as he was credited with his fifth goal of the season. The intensity picked up as Joseph LaBate and Doyle Somerby exchanged blows in a big-time fight before Max McCormick chased down Ryan MacInnis after the Sens forward was left unimpressed with a hit he had received from the Monsters forward. The resulting extra penalty on McCormick cost them as Broadhurst completed his hat-trick with 10:12 to play as he buried a rebound for a 6-2 Cleveland lead.
Sens forward Lindberg managed to snag his first goal in a Belleville jersey as he snapped one past Berube with 9:19 to play to cut the deficit to 6-3.
Friday’s contest was the first ever meeting between Belleville and Cleveland.
The two teams will meet again tonight (Saturday) night.
Bergdoerfer says they need to come back tonight and not make those same mistakes.
Pre-game action begins on CJBQ at 6:50 brought to you by Deerhaven Farm and Garden and Eastern Overhead Door.
Belleville’s next home game is December 27.
To see video highlights of last night’s game click here.
