Time will tell, but it’s the best time of year – playoff hockey time – in the Forest City. The Monsters, the minor league affiliate of the Blue Jackets, are competing in the American Hockey League postseason for the first time since 2019.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Monsters won the North Division regular-season title for the first time in franchise history and earned a first-round bye in the American Hockey League playoffs, but the string of successes didn’t carry over into their playoff opener on Wednesday.

The Belleville Senators took care of business Wednesday night, but it wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. The Senators opened their Round 2 best-of-five series of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup playoffs with a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Monsters at the CAA Arena.

Cleveland last played the weekend of April 19-21, when it swept division foes Rochester and Toronto in three games to clinch the division title. Belleville beat Toronto in a best-of-three series to open the playoffs for the right to take on Cleveland, and the series will begin in Canada in order to reduce travel costs.