page_title: Cleveland Monsters
section_title: Blue Jackets era
hierarchical_section_title: Cleveland Monsters / Franchise history / Blue Jackets era
caption_attribution_description: 750_5009
context_page_description: The Cleveland Monsters are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. The team began play in 2007 as the Lake Erie Monsters and since 2015 has served as the top affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League. The Monsters play home games at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland and have one Calder Cup championship, after winning their first title in 2016.
context_section_description: On April 17, 2015, the Monsters announced the signing of a multi-year agreement to become the AHL affiliate for the Columbus Blue Jackets, which took effect in the 2015–16 season. The affiliation was among several that offseason that brought AHL and NHL franchise affiliations geographically closer together. The multi-season affiliation was extended in 2019.
  The Monsters finished the 2015–16 season by setting a franchise record in points (97) and qualified for the playoffs for the second time in team history. On April 23, 2016, the Monsters defeated their first round opponent, the Rockford IceHogs 5–3, capping a three-game sweep of their opponent in a best-of-five series. The Monsters advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals to play the Grand Rapids Griffins in a best-of-seven series, defeating them 4–2 in six games. They then swept the defending Calder Cup Champion Ontario Reign in the Western Conference Finals to reach their first Calder Cup Final in franchise history.  On June 11, 2016, the Monsters won the franchise's first Calder Cup in a four-game sweep of the Hershey Bears, with Oliver Bjorkstrand scoring the Cup-winning goal in overtime.
  This marked Cleveland's first AHL title since the Barons won their last Calder Cup in 1964, and 10th overall for a Cleveland-based AHL team. The Monsters won Game 4 before a sellout crowd of 19,665 people at Quicken Loans Arena — the second largest crowd for a professional hockey game in Ohio behind the 19,941 in a Cleveland Lumberjacks game against the Minnesota Moose in February 1996, and the second largest in Calder Cup playoff history behind the 20,103 Philadelphia Phantoms game four victory in the 2005 Calder Cup Finals over the Chicago Wolves.
  On August 9, 2016, the Lake Erie Monsters changed their name to the Cleveland Monsters. The team's Calder Cup winning head coach, Jared Bednar, was then hired by the Colorado Avalanche on August 25. Under their new name and coach John Madden, the Monsters failed to qualify for the playoffs in the 2016–17 season. In 2017–18 season, the Monsters were the first team eliminated from playoff contention, failing to make the post-season for the ninth time in 11 seasons, and earned last place in the Western Conference. The team returned to the playoffs following the 2018–19 season as the fourth seed in the North Division where they upset the division champion Syracuse Crunch before being swept by the Toronto Marlies in the division finals. Head coach John Madden then left the team and was replaced by Mike Eaves.
caption: Monsters with the Calder Cup in 2016
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