Brad Thiessen sparkled in a 38-save effort as he held off a desperate Syracuse Crunch onslaught of shots in the third period. With his effort, and two goals from rookie Liam Foudy, the Cleveland Monsters won the game 3-0 to clinch the opening round series two games to one. They will advance to the next round to face the Toronto Marlies who swept the Rochester Americans.
The Crunch will be left to wonder what happened. The most successful regular season team in franchise history could only muster six goals in four games (and only one at even strength) and fell to a Monsters team that didn’t clinch their playoff spot until the final weekend.