Looking to build on their Game 1 momentum, the Syracuse Crunch scored four times in the first period of Game 2 and defeated Cleveland, 4-1, to even the teams’ best-of-five North Division semifinal series.
The series heads to Syracuse for the final three games, with Game 3 set for Friday night (7 ET, ).
The Crunch nearly came back from a 3-0 deficit before falling in Friday’s opener, 3-2. They extended their run to six consecutive goals with Lucas Mercuri, Gabriel Szturc, Jakob Pelletier and Tommy Miller staking them to a 4-0 lead by the 13:15 mark of the opening period Sunday.
Pelletier, the AHL’s regular-season scoring champion with 77 points, also had two assists on the afternoon.
Brandon Halverson shut the Monsters down, stopping 32 of 33 shots after he was perfect coming on in relief during Game 1.
Mikael Pyyhtiä scored the only goal for the Monsters. After backing up in Game 1, Ivan Fedotov allowed four goals on six shots before yielding to rookie Evan Gardner. The 20-year-old Gardner, a second-round pick by Columbus in the 2024 NHL Draft, stopped 10 shots in relief.
(Series tied, 1-1)
Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 24 – CLEVELAND 3, Syracuse 2
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 26 – Syracuse 4, CLEVELAND 1
Game 3 – Fri., May 1 – Cleveland at Syracuse, 7:00
Game 4 – Sun., May 3 – Cleveland at Syracuse, 3:00
*Game 5 – Sat., May 9 – Cleveland at Syracuse, 5:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
