If you wanted to, you could cut the Cleveland Monsters’ season into a series of segments.
There was the 17-14-5-1 start to the campaign that left the team in a battle for a playoff spot in early 2026. Then, Cleveland hit the gas pedal, going 16-6-1-0 over a 23-game stretch that vaulted the squad to the verge of clinching a third straight postseason berth.
A 2-6-2 stretch followed that left the Blue Jackets’ AHL affiliate trying to regain its footing down the stretch, but Cleveland won its last two games last weekend – a 2-1 win at Rochester followed by a 6-4 victory Sunday in front of a raucous crowd in Rocket Arena – to clinch a first-round bye.
The Monsters (37-26-6-3) settled in third place in the AHL North, and the opening round of the Calder Cup postseason begins tonight in Rocket Arena. The top affiliate of the Blue Jackets will host a Syracuse team that finished six points ahead of Cleveland for second place in the North standings, but there’s reason for optimism in the Forest City when the puck drops tonight.
It’s largely because of the way the Monsters responded to the late-season adversity with a strong finishing kick, head coach Trent Vogelhuber said.
“I like the fact our team has found a way to dig in at a really difficult time where there is some pressure and playoff seeding and spots on the line,” Vogelhuber said. “That’s what those moments of adversity do. They help you to focus on the details and come together a little bit. That’s why you see teams come out of those moments stronger.
“It’s never ideal, but I guess where our team is at, I feel good because they’ve seen what doesn’t work. We know what we are and the way we need to play, and I think the little lulls have showed us what happens when we veer (off course), so I just feel confident that our group is confident in what we are and what we have to do and things we have to avoid.”
Cleveland will play the first two games of its best-of-five series at home vs. the Crunch before playing Games 3, 4 and 5 (the last two if necessary) in upstate New York. There is sure to be a big Cleveland crowd on hand for tonight’s Game 1 and Sunday’s Game 2, and the Monsters will be hoping to duplicate what happened two years ago.
That year, the Monsters had to win three games in the last three days of the regular season to assure a playoff berth, and Cleveland did just that to clinch first place in the North Division. A run all the way to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final followed, setting the standard for a team that has now made postseason appearances commonplace under Vogelhuber.
This year’s squad includes the usual AHL mix of veterans and prospects, and it could be built for playoff success. At the front of the group of youngsters is Luca Del Bel Belluz, the 2022 second-round pick who led Cleveland in scoring with a 22-36-58 line in 55 games and represented the team at the AHL All-Star Classic.
Mikael Pyyhtiä added 21-28-49 in 59 games with 16 multipoint outings, while Luca Pinelli (14-32-46) finished seventh among all AHL rookies in scoring. First-year AHLer Jack Williams, signed by the Jackets out of Northeastern late last season, had a 15-23-38 line while playing in all 72 games while posting six game-winning goals and four OT winners.
Defensively, the team is loaded with prospects, including 2021 first-round pick Corson Ceulemans (8-16-24 in 64 games), the steady Guillaume Richard (7-11-18, +20 in 70 games), talented rookie Luca Marrelli (4-12-16 in 32 games), and 2024 second-round pick Charlie Elick, who joined the team late in the campaign.
There are also dependable veterans in captain Brendan Gaunce (16-20-36 in 44 games), Zach Aston-Reese (8-8-16 in 27 games), Hudson Fasching (7-11-18 in 65 games) and defenseman Will Butcher (3-18-21 in 62 games), and Vogelhuber also praised the group of bridge players the team has. Owen Sillinger (14-20-34 in 69 games), Roman Ahcan (16 goals in 67 games) and Justin Pearson (12-13-25 in 56 games) aren’t grizzled vets but aren’t fresh-faced rookies, either, providing a dependable link between the hockey lifers and the young prospects.
As Cleveland looks to have postseason success, the plan is clear based on analytics Vogelhuber looked at early in 2026 that showed the identity of the squad.
“We’re a team that is above (the puck), always,” Vogelhuber said. “We’re tough to come up the ice against, disrupting on reloads. We have an above mentality, smothering through the neutral zone. We are a puck race and puck support team, where we’re top of the league as far as loose puck battles go, so that means sprinting to and supporting both areas of the ice. We’re a netfront team. You don’t get chances at ours, and we’re gonna fight for chances at yours.
“And I think the last thing, which might be one of the biggest, is the pace that we play with is foundational for us. We’re not the biggest, we’re not the strongest, but we do have some skaters, and when we play with pace it’s an advantage for us. So those are some areas that I think our identity is built on that our guys have been able to grab ahold of.”
Syracuse is led by the AHL’s leading scorer this season, Jakob Pelletier, who posted 28 goals and 77 points in 63 games. Other names to know are Cleveland-area native Dylan Duke (a team-high 32 goals), NHL veteran Mitchell Chaffee (24-33-57 in 54 games) and Nick Abruzzese (15-36-51 in 56 games). In net, the affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning was led by Brandon Halverson (24-11-6, 2.42 GAA, .905 SV%) and Ryan Fanti (13-12-1, 2.41, .905).
But as usual, Cleveland hopes to use its team atmosphere as an advantage, as the Monsters have been together for much of the season and bonded together through the ups and downs of the campaign.
“We have a good group of guys,” Del Bel Belluz said. “Obviously it’s from the coaches all the way down. It’s a great group of guys. We’re really tight. We spend a lot of time away from each other away from the rink.”
And the Monsters have a chance to start things off on the right foot in front of what should be a buzzing crowd at Rocket Arena tonight. Cleveland averaged 11,530 fans per game, the third highest total in AHL history, and the team’s run to the conference final two years ago was aided by a palpable home-ice advantage that Monsters fans are ready to replicate.
“Our organization, they do such a good job of getting people out here and getting the brand and the name around town,” Vogelhuber said. “And that’s just Cleveland, too, right? Cleveland sports fans are nuts, and they get behind their team, so we’re lucky to have them on our side. It’s an NHL atmosphere in an NHL building, and there’s no time like the playoffs where you can use that to your advantage.”