Syracuse Crunch Rout Cleveland Monsters 6-2, Chaffee and Fanti Star

Jakob Pelletier needed just 49 seconds to put the Syracuse Crunch on the board Saturday night, and the Cleveland Monsters never recovered. Syracuse rolled to a 6-2 victory at Upstate Medical University Arena, with Mitchell Chaffee scoring twice and goaltender Ryan Fanti delivering a 27-save performance to move the Crunch to 37-19-3-2 in the North Division standings.

Chaffee provided the game's signature moment at 10:37 of the second period, burying a penalty shot to push Syracuse ahead 2-0. It was the kind of momentum swing that effectively ended Cleveland's hopes of a comeback. Roman Ahcan trimmed the deficit to 2-1 at 12:38 on assists from Luca Pinelli and Dysin Mayo, but Simon Lundmark restored the two-goal cushion at 17:41 to send Syracuse to the second intermission leading 3-1.

The third period was over almost before it started. Tristan Allard scored just 18 seconds in to make it 4-1, and while Jack Williams answered unassisted at 9:43 to pull Cleveland within two, the Monsters could not sustain any pressure. Chaffee sealed it with an empty-net goal at 17:48, his second of the night, before Gabriel Szturc added a power-play marker at 19:54 to finalize the 6-2 scoreline.

Cleveland's Ivan Fedotov absorbed the loss, stopping 19 of 25 shots. Fanti, meanwhile, was tested more by volume: Cleveland out-shot Syracuse 29-25, but the Crunch goaltender held firm throughout, improving his record to 12-12-1. The special-teams disparity told its own story: Syracuse killed all nine Cleveland power plays, going a perfect 9-for-9 on the penalty kill while converting once on three opportunities of their own.

The loss dropped Cleveland to 33-21-6-1, third in the North Division. The two teams return to Upstate Medical University Arena on Sunday, March 22, at 4:00 p.m. for the final meeting of their season series, with coverage available on SportsRadio 99.1 and AHLTV on FloHockey.