Alan Kornspan
Believeland Media
Justin Pearson gains possession of puck and scores open net goal with three seconds left in game four
(Alan Kornspan/Believeland Media)
The Cleveland Monsters defeated the Belleville Senators 3-1 on Friday night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
With the victory, the Monsters advance to the North Division Finals where they will take on the Syracuse Crunch.
In order to clinch the series, the Monsters got on the scoreboard early in game 4 as they took a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the contest.
The Senators then tied the game at 1-1 late in the first period.
The Monsters took a 2-1 lead with 6 minutes left in the second period.
The game would remain 2-1 until the Monsters made the final score 3-1 on an open net goal with three seconds remaining in the game.
Post-game, Monsters Head Coach Trent Vogelhuber said that the team played really hard and did a very good job of managing their emotions throughout the game.
I just think we played hard, (and) defended pretty well," said Vogelhuber.
"The big thing, I think in playoffs is emotions can get too high. It's just about controlling those (emotions)."
"Peoples emotions can swing so high and so low and that's when you get off course. I think we did a good job of managing those (emotions) and everybody played super hard."
As Coach Vogelhuber said, the team played hard throughought the contest. In fact, the Monsters high level of intensity was demonstrated early as they scored their first goal of the game with less than two minutes coming off the clock in the first period.
Scoring the Monsters first goal with 18:21 left in the first period was Marcus Bjork who was assisted on the goal by Trey-Fix Wolansky and Billy Sweezey.
Bjork scores first goal for Monsters in 3-1 playoff victory over the Senators
(Alan Kornspan/Believeland Media)
After the Monsters went up 1-0, the Senators tied the game at 1-1 when Stephen Halliday scored with 5:58 left in the first period.
The Monsters took a 2-1 lead when Owen Sillinger scored with six minutes left in the second period. Sillinger was assisted on the goal by Mikael Pyyhtia and Marcus Bjork.
Owen Sillinger scores with 6 minutes left in second period to give Monsters a 2-1 lead over the Senators in Game Four.
(Alan Kornspan/Believeland Media)
Scoring the Monsters third goal of the game with 3 seconds left in the contest was Justin Pearson who was assisted on the empty net goal by Stefan Matteau.
Justin Pearson scores empty net goal with three seconds left in the Monsters 3-1 playoff victory over the Senators
(Alan Kornspan/Believeland Media)
Afterward, in the post-game press conference, Pearson talked about scoring the final goal.
"Energy was high at the end there protecting the lead, but we just got to do the right things, we know what we're doing out there," said Pearson.
"You got to have confidence and a little bit of swagger getting it done. Matteau made a great play getting it out and it was just a foot race (to the puck) and I beat him."
For the game, Monsters goalie Jet Greaves was phenomenal saving 32 shots on goal.
Jet Greaves had 32 saves in the Monsters 3-1 game four victory over the Senators
(Alan Kornspan/Believeland Media)
In the post-game interview Jet said that there is great cohesion among the team.
We've got a really close knit group," said Greaves.
"I think that helps us just to kind of be on the same page and get better and better as the year goes on. I think we're kind of seeing that right now and we want to keep that going."
The Monsters will now move on to the North Division Finals of the Calder Cup Playoffs as they will face the Syracuse Crunch.
The Monsters will host the Crunch at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse for Game One on Thursday, May 16th. The puck drop is scheduled for 7pm.
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