The Cleveland Monsters dressed only 16 skaters on Saturday night as they played host to the Rockford IceHogs. By the time the third-period clock expired, the Monsters were down to only nine forwards and five defensemen.

Cleveland overcame several obstacles in its path en route to a 6-3 win, their second victory in their last three games. The Monsters (2-3-1-0) saw five different players score and 11 register at least a point in what was one of their most complete team efforts of the young season.

“The guys rose to the occasion,” said Monsters Head Coach Mike Eaves. “It’s really fun to be a part of that, and the guys deserve a lot of credit.

“They played an intelligent game, but they played hard when they had to. We got some big saves from [Kivlenieks] and had some guys step up and score tonight. All those things are positives for us.”

Cleveland came out aggressively with a pair of goals over the opening seven minutes. Nick Lappin opened the scoring a hair over three minutes into the contest, taking a drop pass between the circles from Carson Meyer before sending a wrist shot over the shoulder of IceHogs netminder Collin Delia.

Shortly after scoring, Lappin was tripped up on a breakaway opportunity and slid headfirst into the boards. The six-year AHL veteran departed to the Monsters’ locker room and did not return.

Brett Gallant made it a 2-0 game at 7:04 thanks to another slick passing play from Meyer, who found Cleveland’s longtime enforcer skating toward the far circle for a quick shot that seemed to catch Delia off guard. Connor McDonald produced the secondary assist for his first AHL point.

Goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks made a point-blank save in the final seconds of the opening stanza, his sixth of the period, to maintain the 2-0 edge going into the first intermission.

Rockford cut the lead in half at 6:25 of the second frame when Kivlenieks was unable to corral a rebound on a wrist shot from the point, allowing MacKenzie Entwhistle to pounce on the loose puck for an easy goal.

Cleveland’s penalty kill has struggled early on, but the unit went 2-for-2 against the IceHogs, including a big kill midway through the second that directly led to the Monsters’ third goal of the affair. Rather than clearing the puck late in the kill, Evan Polei had the presence of mind to look for Zach Jordan, who was tagged for tripping at 9:35, for a breakaway as he exited the sin bin. The rookie out of Omaha-Nebraska found twine on an attempt from the right circle for a 3-1 lead.

“As I was coming out, Pols looked up and found me with a really good pass and I was able to walk in there,” Jordan said. “It worked out well, I just came out and took what was open.”

Late in the period, Connor McDonald’s slapper from the point bounced out to the stick of a crashing Tyler Sikura, whose second tally of the season was fired into an open net.

After the visitors found an early goal in the third period to cut the deficit back to 4-2, the Monsters red-hot power play was provided its first chance of the contest at 3:44. Cleveland wasted no time capitalizing on the opportunity, winning the offensive zone draw before moving the puck across the blue line to Trey Fix-Wolansky for a one-time slapshot.

The goal came only 10 seconds into the man advantage and 32 seconds after Rockford scored. The IceHogs went on to net one more in the period before Fix-Wolansky found another power-play tally when Meyer sent a quick pass across the crease to the Monsters’ leading scorer, who had all the time in the world to line up an accurate wrister for his fourth of the year to cap off the 6-3 win.

“Everyone knows their job on the power play,” said Fixx-Wolansky, “Sikura is right in front of the net, Gerbe makes great plays with the puck and fortunately I’ve been able to get open for shots for those guys to find me.”

Kivlenieks had a solid night in his first live game action in nearly a full calendar year, stopping 27 of 30 shots en route to his first win. Fix-Wolanksy’s two-goal effort gives him a 4-3-7 line over six appearances while Meyer impressed with a three-assist outing.

While Cleveland’s first line of Gerbe, Sikura and Fix-Wolansky predictably did most of the heavy lifting, eight of the 10 forwards who dressed contributed at least one point. In particular, the second line of Meyer, Lappin and Adam Helewka seemed to click in their brief time together. Polei slotted in Lappin’s place following Lappin’s early injury and played well.

The Monsters and IceHogs wrap up their four-game season series on Saturday afternoon with a 1 p.m. puck drop at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

UPDATE: The AHL announced this morning that today's game will be re-scheduled due to COVID protocols. No further details were immediately available.

--- Jared Tennant for Ohio Hockey Digest