Comets Defeat Monsters 4-1, Extend Winning Streak to Three Games

The most revealing number from Utica's 4-1 win in Cleveland on Sunday is 12, not 4. Twelve shorthanded goals, the most in the AHL, is what the Comets carried into this series finale, and Jonathan Gruden pushed that total higher at 4:08 of the second period when he finished a Ryan Schmelzer feed on a 2-on-1 past Ivan Fedotov for his 11th goal of the season. A team that manufactures offense during penalty kills is running a different playbook than everyone else in the conference, and Utica used it to take the season series against Cleveland and lock up a head-to-head edge with genuine tiebreaker weight in the North Division.

That series result functions as a four-point swing in the standings: Utica pockets the points and Cleveland has no path to recover them through direct play.

Marc McLaughlin opened the scoring at 11:40 of the first, tipping a Mike Hardman pass at the crease after Dylan Wendt triggered the sequence in the offensive zone. Calen Addison made it 3-0 at 11:49 of the second on a high-slot shot off an Xavier Parent feed, his fifth of the year. Nico Daws held that cushion without conceding a thing through 40 minutes, stopping all 19 shots he faced before the third. Cleveland's Jack Williams tipped a Luca Del Bel Belluz shot at 12:40 to pull one back, but Nathan Légaré's empty-netter at 17:51 ended any remaining suspense, his 10th of the season.

Utica finished outshot 27-23 and went 0-for-4 on the power play but killed both of Cleveland's man advantages. The Comets return home April 1 to face Providence carrying a three-game winning streak, the season series over Cleveland locked in their favor, and a tiebreaker advantage they will almost certainly need before this race is settled.