After nearly 48 minutes of overtime hockey, it took a two-on-none break to finally beat Brandon Halverson.
Zach Aston-Reese finished off a feed from Brendan Gaunce with 7:53 gone in the third OT period to give the Cleveland Monsters a 2-1 win over the Syracuse Crunch and a 3-1 series victory in their North Division semifinal series on Sunday.
Cleveland will take on either Laval or Toronto in the next round.
Halverson (1-2) finished the game with 56 saves – 33 of them in sudden-death overtime with the Crunch trying to stave off elimination. But the Monsters capitalized on a neutral-zone turnover with Syracuse trying to complete a line change, ending the longest game in both franchises’ history.
Zach Sawchenko (3-0) was outstanding in the opposite cage, stopping 46 shots in the game and shutting out the Crunch over the final 101:18 after Matteo Pietroniro had given Syracuse an early 1-0 lead.
Rookie defenseman Luca Marrelli had a goal and an assist for the Monsters.
(Cleveland wins series, 3-1)
Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 24 – CLEVELAND 3, Syracuse 2
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 26 – Syracuse 4, CLEVELAND 1
Game 3 – Fri., May 1 – Cleveland 4, SYRACUSE 3 (OT)
Game 4 – Sun., May 3 – Cleveland 2, SYRACUSE 1 (3OT)
