Crunch Fall To Comets, 3-2, In Game 1

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch fell to the Cleveland Monsters, 3-2, tonight in Game 1 of the best-of-five North Division Semifinals series at Rocket Arena.
 
After going down by three, the Crunch rallied back with goals from Dylan Duke and Mitchell Chaffee to pull back within one, but were unable to complete the effort.
 
Crunch goaltender Jon Gillies turned aside 3-of-6 shots before being relieved by Brandon Halverson to start the second period. Halverson went on to stop all nine he shots he faced. Zach Sawchenko earned the win turning aside 29-of-31 shots in net for the Monsters. Neither team had a man-advantage during the game.
 
The Monsters were first on the board 4:25 into the game. After Gillies misplayed the puck behind the cage, Hudson Fasching was able to center it for Justin Pearson to send into an open net. They doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Will Butcher sniped a shot from the top of the left circle. Corson Ceulemans gave Cleveland a 3-0 lead late in the opening frame with a close-range shot while he was all alone out front.
 
Duke stole one back for Syracuse just 1:51 into the middle frame when he sped down the ice and beat Sawchenko on the breakaway.
 
The Crunch came back within in one at the 4:02 mark of the third period. Max Groshev fired a long point shot that went wide left and ricocheted off the end boards. Tristan Allard grabbed it and centered a pass for Chaffee to chip in. The team peppered 17 shots on goal during the final period, while only allowing four in their late comeback effort, but ran out of time and dropped the first game of the series.
 
The Crunch and Monsters will play Game 2 in Cleveland on Sunday.
 
Single game tickets and ticket packages for the 2025-26 Calder Cup Playoffs are on sale now and can be purchased in person at the Crunch office located inside the Upstate Medical University Arena at Onondaga County War Memorial at 800 S. State St. in Syracuse, by calling the office at 315-473-4444 or online through Ticketmaster. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), X (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@syracusecrunch).
 
Crunchables: Mitchell Chaffee scored his first career Calder Cup Playoffs goal in his first career Calder Cup Playoffs game.