Halverson steadies Monsters as North Division semifinal swings to Game 3
Halverson turned Game 2 into the Monsters’ edge, and Cleveland rewarded him with an overtime win to grab a 2-1 series lead. Toronto, meanwhile, had one clear fix: survive Laval without Matt Benning.
Brandon Halverson changed the North Division semifinal the moment Cleveland needed him most, and by Game 3 the Monsters had the series where they wanted it. In a best-of-five that was already swinging on goaltending, Halverson stopped 32 of 33 shots in Game 2 after entering in relief of Game 1, then watched Hudson Fasching bury the winner at 10:05 of overtime in a 4-3 Cleveland victory on May 1 that pushed the Monsters ahead 2-1.
That sequence matters because Syracuse’s path to a 1-1 split had already exposed how fragile the crease could be. Ivan Fedotov gave up four goals on six shots in Game 2 before handing the net to Evan Gardner, the 20-year-old Columbus Blue Jackets second-round pick from the 2024 NHL Draft. Gardner settled things down with 10 saves in relief, but the damage was already done. On the other side, Halverson gave Cleveland exactly what playoff teams crave in a short series: a goalie who can erase mistakes and tilt the ice back the other way.
The Monsters’ edge was not just about one save or one night. It was about a goaltending answer that seemed to harden as the series moved to Game 3, where Cleveland’s 4-3 overtime win gave it control of the matchup after Syracuse had looked poised to seize it earlier in the series. Halverson’s numbers told the story better than any speech could. Once he entered Game 1, he kept the Monsters alive, and in Game 2 he was nearly perfect. That is how a playoff series flips, especially when neither club has room for a long evaluation period.
Toronto faced a different kind of pressure point against Laval, but the stakes were just as immediate. The Marlies beat the Rocket 6-2 at Place Bell to even their series at 1-1, and they did it without Matt Benning, who was ruled out for the rest of the series with an upper-body injury. Benning brought 465 NHL games of experience and had finished the regular season with Toronto at three goals and 13 assists in 34 games. Forward Matthew Barbolini was also out with an upper-body injury, leaving rookie Chas Sharpe to step into Benning’s spot.
That is the adjustment the Marlies have to solve fast. Laval had gone 24-9-2-1 at Place Bell in the regular season and already knew how to turn that building into a weapon. Toronto answered once with six goals and a split, but the series now asks the harder question: can the Marlies keep pace there while reshaping a blue line on the fly? The next game will say a lot about whether Toronto has a real answer or just a temporary fix.
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