The Monsters rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, 3-2, on Dec. 12 and had a chance to duplicate a comeback two nights later, but they did not finish the job in the rematch. The Phantoms scored 41 seconds into the first period on  Dec. 14 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, made it 2-0 early in the second period, then beat the Monsters, 3-2, in overtime after Cleveland got back to even on goals by Dylan Gambrell and Trey Fix-Wolansky. “I don’t think we started on time,” Coach Trent Vogelhuber said. “It got better as the game went along, but a little bit of an inconsistent effort, certainly compared to Thursday. “I thought we started carrying the play a little bit more, but they were (the Phantoms) a little bit more desperate overall, I thought, especially at the start.” The Monsters gave the puck away on a lazy pass inside their defensive end before the game was a minute old. Lehigh’s Rodrigo Abols pounced and whipped a shot under the left arm of Monsters goalie Zach Sawchenko for a 1-0 lead. The Phantoms went up 2-0 on a play that started with Lehigh goalie Cal Peterson making a save with his stick and passing the puck up ice to Oscar Ekind. Ekind  passed it to Jacob  Gaucher just inside the blue line and then Gaucher bore down on the Cleveland net and snapped the puck between Sawchenko’s pads. Gambrell redirected a pass from Rocco Grimaldi to make it 2-1 in the second period. Fix-Wolansky tied it on a slap shot high in the slot to tie it 8:42 into the third period. It was his 14th goal of the season and the 100th of his AHL career, all with the Monsters. Fix-Wolansky had a breakaway with a chance to win the game in overtime, but Peterson made the save with his right pad. The Phantoms gained control of the loose puck, skated to the opposite end of the rink and won the game on Louie Belpidio’s third goal of the season. The Monsters, 16-6-1-2, have home games with the Utica Comets at 7 p.m. Dec. 18 and 19 at the FieldHouse.