Owen Sillinger scored 4:41 into double overtime to send the Cleveland Monsters to a 3-2 win over Belleville on Wednesday in front of the largest crowd for a Calder Cup Playoff game in nearly eight years.
The Monsters take a 2-1 series lead into Game 4 on Friday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, where the Game 3 turnout of 12,659 fans was the largest for any AHL postseason game since Cleveland sold out Game 4 of the Calder Cup Finals (19,665) in 2016.
After David Jiricek’s shot went wide and caromed off the end boards, Sillinger gathered the rebound at the left-wing faceoff dot. His initial shot was blocked but he got the puck right back and scored to give the Monsters their second consecutive overtime victory.
Sillinger, Jiricek and Mikael Pyyhtia all finished with a goal and an assist for Cleveland, while Jet Greaves made 39 saves in net – 18 of them during sudden death.
Josh Currie and Donovan Sebrango scored and Lassi Thomson and Stephen Halliday tallied two assists each for the Senators, who erased an early 2-0 deficit. Mads Sogaard finished the night with 41 saves.
Cleveland improved to 7-2 all-time in playoff OT games. Belleville fell to 1-5, with six of their eight postseason games in franchise history requiring overtime.
(Cleveland leads series, 2-1)
Game 1 – Wed., May 1 – BELLEVILLE 2, Cleveland 1
Game 2 – Fri., May 3 – Cleveland 4, BELLEVILLE 3 (OT)
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – CLEVELAND 3, Belleville 2 (2OT)
Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – Belleville at Cleveland, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Belleville at Cleveland, 3:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
