By Warren Kozireski
Rochester broke a seven-game home winless streak in Wednesday home games dating back to Jan. 14 with a 4-1 victory over Cleveland despite eight players sidelined with injuries.
Liam Valente created the first goal at 11:28 of the first period creating a turnover behind the Cleveland net and finding Zac Funk streaking down the slot calling for the puck.
“I saw him, but I mostly heard him (Funk); he was screaming pretty loud,” Valente said. “I don’t know if you guys heard it, but I heard it pretty loud, saw him and passed it.”
In the final minute of the first, Riley Fiddler-Schultz finished a pass from defenseman Dennis Gilbert for a power play goal to make it 2-0 Rochester.
Early in the second following a Monsters tripping call, Jason Polin scored off a cross-ice feed from Caleb Jones for his team-leading sixth goal of the season to extend the Amerks lead to 3-0.
Cleveland broke up the shutout bid of Rochester goaltender Matt Villalta (23 saves) with seven minutes remaining in regulation and the Monsters pulled the goaltender for a six-on-four advantage following a Radim Mrtka slashing penalty with 4:09 remaining, but Polin ended the comeback attempt with an empty-net tally with 1:51 left with Matthew Peca and Gilbert each recording their second assists of the game.
Villalta now leads the AHL with six wins and stands eighth with a 2.00 goals against average.
“When you have eight guys out of the lineup like we did, you have to find ways to win games in this league, stay afloat and keep fighting and I thought our guys did a really good job of that the last couple of games,” Rochester head coach Michael Leone said.
Rochester next hosts Hartford Friday before heading to Utica Saturday.
