Marlies Defeat Wild In Tight Battle

TOR 3 - IA 2

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Toronto: V. Lettieri (7) PP (T. Boyd, C. Paré), B. Groulx (18) (N. Chadwick, V. Lettieri), V. Lettieri (8) (B. Groulx) Goaltender: A. Akhtyamov (20/22) W

Iowa: O. Olausson (5) (J. Peart), O. Olausson (6) (D. Gambrell, B. Gleason) Goaltender: S. Hlavaj (28/31) L

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Vinni Lettieri opened the scoring on the power play at 7:53 of the first period with his team-leading fourth power play goal and scored Toronto’s third goal of the game at 6:11 of the third period. He also added the secondary assist on Groulx’s second period goal. This was his second three-point game of the season. He has points (5-11-16) in 11 of his last 12 games. Lettieri has 28 points (8 goals, 20 assists) in 32 games this season.
• Bo Groulx scored at 9:17 of the second period and later added the lone assist on Lettieri’s third period goal. He has tied his season-high in goals (18). Groulx has 30 points (18 goals, 12 assists) in 37 games this season.
• Travis Boyd recorded the primary assist on Lettieri’s first period power play goal. He has 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in 30 games this season.
• Cédric Paré had the secondary assist on Lettieri’s first period power play goal. He has nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) in 29 games this season.
• Noah Chadwick registered the primary assist on Groulx’s second period goal. He has nine points (2 goals, 7 assists) in 37 games this season.
• Artur Akhtyamov stopped 20 of 22 shots he faced. He is 14-7-1 this season with a 2.94 goals against average and a 0.898 save percentage.

TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and 1-for-5 on the power play. Toronto is 9-4-0-1 when scoring on the power play 12-4-0-0 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto outshot Iowa 31-22 in all situations. Reese Johnson led the Marlies with five shots on net. Toronto is 9-6-1-0 when outshooting their opponent.
• The Marlies are 4-4-1-0 against Central Division opponents and 3-0-0-0 the Wild.
• Toronto is now on their annual Boat Show Road Trip and will return to Coca-Cola Coliseum on January 31.

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game: I didn’t think we gave them much but kind of the common theme is the problem when they do get something, it’s us hand delivering it. There was a lot of good in our game today. We’ll clean a few things up but definitely the power play is trending and it’s a big score dot get us going. Again, there was a lot of good, played a really clean third up until that first goal. We had a lot of good shifts and a lot of good momentum that was started by that fourth line. I liked the win. I was a little disappointed in the way it ended. Playing a team again tomorrow, giving them a little momentum going into tomorrow so, we’ve got to stop that right away.

BO GROULX (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)

On tonight’s game: We had a great start. Pretty much the whole season we’ve been talking about having good starts and I think today we had a good start, two quick goals. Power play finally came through. We had some great scoring chances and Artie was really good in net. Overall, we had what we wanted especially at the start. After that second and third, we kind of let up a little bit which was expected but Artie came through for us and it’s a big win for us.