A close game for 40 minutes turned into a rout for the Cleveland Monsters at CAA Arena on Wednesday night.
Cleveland spoiled a record-breaking night for Arthur Kaliyev with a 7-2 victory, stringing together five unanswered goals to win going away.
The Monsters cashed in first against the run of play when Luca Del Bel Belluz buried a quick shot on a give-and-go with Mikael Pyythia past Mads Sogaard at 7:29 of the first.
Kaliyev had his milestone response, netting his 32nd goal of the season on a quick break past the pinching Cleveland defence and using his deadly wrist shot to beat Zach Sawchenko almost a minute-and-a-half later.
With the goal, the Sens forward passed Josh Norris for the most single-season goals in franchise history.
Cleveland wrestled the shot count away eventually and found the back of the net for a second time on a Luca Pinelli one-timer to jump ahead again.
Shots favoured Cleveland 15-9 in the frame.
Both teams traded tallies in a competitive second stanza
The Sens immediately got off the starting blocks fast with a clean shot off the crossbar and back out from newcomer Ryan O’Rourke, before equalizing the scoring situation.
Again, Kaliyev caught the Cleveland defence flat-footed, cutting from the right side and deking out Sawchenko on the backhand for his 33rd of the year and second of the night.
The ping-pong battle continued with Cleveland going ahead by one goal for a third time in the contest on a Pyythia powerplay marker at the 7:47 juncture of the period.
The Monsters spread their margin out in the third, mashing another one-timer on a cross-ice past Sogaard through Del Bel Belluz on a backhand feed from Hunter McKown more than five minutes into the third.
Cleveland’s Zach Aston-Reese tacked on another on a funny bounce off a failed Belleville clearing attempt at 9:19 to make it 5-2, Jack Ahcan put away an empty-netter and Del Belluz completed his hat trick in the final two minutes.
Final shots favoured the visitors 37-31.
The Sens will have to shake off the result fairly quickly, as they get set to meet the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins on Friday night at 7 p.m.


