Last season, the Cleveland Monsters were a thorn in the side of Derek Lalonde and the Iowa Wild. They ended their franchise-record-making, six-game winning streak (though they continued their point streak). As Iowa was trying for a late season push for the playoffs, the Monsters took four of five contests while shutting out the Wild three times. Cleveland would end up beating Iowa by five points (86 total) in the final standings, though missed the postseason via tiebreaker to the Charlotte Checkers.
The Monsters joined the Columbus organization in 2015 after eight years of being attached to Colorado and promptly won a Calder Cup.