Fasching’s first playoff goal lifts Monsters past Crunch in overtime, 4-3

Cleveland’s depth held when the game tightened, and that was the difference in a playoff series that has already turned into a familiar grind. Hudson Fasching finished it 10:05 into overtime, scoring the first postseason goal of his 10-year professional career to lift the Monsters past the Syracuse Crunch 4-3 in Game 3 of the North Division semifinal and move Cleveland ahead 2-1 in the best-of-five series.

The winner came off a long pass from Jack Williams after Dysin Mayo helped set the play in motion. Fasching had just come onto the ice to begin a shift when he broke in on Brandon Halverson and beat the Syracuse goaltender for the goal that sent Cleveland home with a crucial road win and a chance to close out the series in Sunday afternoon’s Game 4 back in Syracuse.

That finish mattered because Cleveland did not lean on one line or one big-name performance to survive. Guillaume Richard scored twice for the Monsters, Riley Bezeau added another, and Richard’s late third-period goal tied the game 3-3 after Ethan Gauthier had put Syracuse ahead. Zach Sawchenko handled the rest, turning aside 31 shots to give Cleveland the kind of stable goaltending playoff series are built on.

Syracuse got its own scoring spread from Spencer Kersten, Nick Abruzzese and Gauthier, and Halverson made 28 saves in the loss. The Crunch had swung momentum just days earlier with a 4-1 win in Game 2, when they jumped all over Cleveland by scoring four times in the first period. That made Game 3 a test of how well the Monsters could absorb pressure and still find production from different spots in the lineup.

They answered it, and in doing so they reinforced the shape of this matchup. Cleveland and Syracuse are meeting for the third time in the playoffs, with the Monsters also winning their 2019 North Division Semifinals and their 2024 North Division Finals showdown. Cleveland entered the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs for a third straight year, a run that began with its Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2024. This overtime result did more than flip a score line. It showed again that the Monsters can beat the Crunch with waves of contributors, the kind of formula that tends to travel in the AHL once the series pressure rises.