Patrick WilliamsFeatures Writer for TheAHL.com
Disappointment. I'M so proud. Strength.
That was one of the sentiments expressed by the Cleveland Cavaliers after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday night.
For the second game in a row, the Monsters proved they can hang with the Hershey Bears. And in the second game in a row, they accidentally went out in extra time.
In Game 1, Cleveland came back from a two-goal deficit 83 seconds late in the third period to erase a 4-2 deficit. Two nights later, the Monsters tied Game 2 with 1:33 to play. David Jiricekthe sixth pick in the 2022 NHL Draft by Columbus, scored a tying goal in each game.
But both nights ended badly for Zilo. Mike Vecchione scored the winning goal in Game 1. Pierrick Dube he was Hershey's hero in Game 2.
“Two bumpers,” Monsters ahead Josh Dunne said. “It could be our 2-0 series our way.”
But that's not the case. Instead the Monsters are down 2-0 in the best-of-seven series going into Game 3 tonight at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“It's hard for those guys,” the head coach Trent Vogelhuber said after game 2. “They worked hard. [There is] not much would have changed in the second half of that game, especially. You invest in the first half a few times, and hope it pays off in the end.
“We don't stop. We stick together. Good or bad, we're just going to go and I think that's been the story all year. Our team will just play, that's why I'm not worried about them in the next game.”
There are some reasons for optimism. First, there's that Cleveland crowd. The Monsters averaged 10,263 fans per game during the regular season, the most of any AHL team in the last 25 years. With four days of play, their average is over 11,000.
“The energy is amazing,” Dunne said, “and we feed off of it.”
Monsters captain Brendan Gaunce he was back in the lineup for Game 2, his first since finishing the regular season with Columbus. Gaunce assisted on Jiricek's game-tying goal.
And on Monday, Cleveland added a 19-year-old blueliner Denton Mateychuk after finishing his junior season with Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League. Taken 12th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft, Mateychuk was named this season's WHL defenseman of the year and a member of the Canadian Hockey League's First All-Star Team. He provided 75 points (17 goals, 58 assists) in 52 regular season games while captaining Moose Jaw, and added another 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in 20 regular season games. – playoff. The Manitoba native also competed for Canada in the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“You're playing a game in front of you, and we're going to keep going until they tell us we're not playing anymore,” said Vogelhuber. “That's all it is. Our team loves each other. We love being together. So any opportunity we get to be together for a long time, we will take advantage of it regardless of the outcome.
“It's not a two-game series.”
Dunne said, “We showed them that this is going to be a series, and we're going back to our fold.”
TheAHL.com feature writer Patrick Williams has covered the American Hockey League for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM ! Sports, and most recently was the host of The Hockey News On The 'A' podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL's James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league's top scorer in 2016.
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