Toronto Marlies Fall To Rochester Americans In First Of Three-In-Three Weekend

The Toronto Marlies fell 5-3 to the Rochester Americans on Friday night in the first game of a three-in-three weekend.

In the first period, the visitors struck early as the captain, Logan Shaw, scored just 24 seconds into the game to give Toronto an early 1-0 lead. At 6:28 Mason Jobst tied the game at one, and just over eight minutes later Nikita Novikov gave the Amerks a 2-1 lead.

In the second period, Jiri Kulich added another for the Amerks. Before the period was over, Roni Hirvonen got one back for the Marlies, making it 3-2 at the intermission.

In the third, Isak Rosen and Viktor Neuchev both score for Rochester, bringing their total to five. Josiah Slavin scored for the Marlies, but it wasn't enough as the Americans took a 5-3 victory.

The two teams meet again on Saturday afternoon at Scotiabank Arena. Puck drop is at 1:30pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs App and AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY
Toronto: L. Shaw (23) (N. Abruzzese, M. Kokkonen), R. Hirvonen (3) (R. Tverberg, J. Slavin), J. Slavin (8) (W. Villeneuve, M. Rifai)
Goaltender: D. Hildeby (20/25) L

Rochester: M. Jobst (17) (D. Giroux, M. Mersch), N. Novikov (2) (B. Biro, G. Slaggert), J. Kulich (18) (N. Novikov), I Rosen (14) (J. Kulich, R. Stillman), V. Neuchev (9) (J. Cecconi, J. Davies)
Goaltender: D. Levi (41/44) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Logan Shaw opened the scoring 24 seconds into the first period. He has 44 points (23 goals, 21 assists) in 53 games this season.
• Roni Hirvonen scored at 19:41 of the second period. He has seven points (3 goals, 4 assists) in 21 games this season.
• Josiah Slavin scored at 19:53 of the third period and earlier picked up the secondary assist on Hirvonen’s second period goal. He has 21 points (7 goals, 14 assists) in 55 games this season.
• Nick Abruzzese recorded the primary assist on Shaw’s first period goal. He has 38 points (11 goals, 27 assists) in 56 games this season.
• Mikko Kokkonen had the secondary assist on Shaw’s first period goal. He has 13 points (3 goals, 10 assists) in 51 games this season.
• Ryan Tverberg registered the primary assist on Hirvonen’s second period goal. He has points (1-2-3) in three consecutive games. Tverberg has 31 points (9 goals, 22 assists) in 40 games this season.
• William Villeneuve had the primary assist on Slavin’s third period goal. He has 23 points (2 goals, 21 assists) in 45 games this season.
• Marshall Rifai recorded the secondary assist on Slavin’s third period goal. He has 15 points (2 goals, 13 assists) in 42 games this season.
• Dennis Hildeby stopped 20 of 25 shots he faced.

TEAM NOTES

• Toronto has recorded 40 or more shots on Rochester in each game this season.
• The Marlies went 1-for-1 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the power play. Toronto is 8-14-4-0 when not scoring on the power play and 14-8-2-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto had a 44-25 edge in shots in all situations. Kieffer Bellows, Kyle Clifford and Logan Shaw led the Marlies with six shots on goal. Toronto is 16-14-6-2 when outshooting their opponent.
• Toronto is 11-14-7-2 against North Division opponents and are 0-1-2-0 against the Americans this season.

RECORD WHEN

Scoring first                                        23-4-7-2
Trailing after 1^st                                   2-12-1-0
Trailing after 2^nd                                  3-16-4-1
On the road                                        15-10-3-2
March                                                  2-4-0-0
Friday                                                  8-5-1-1

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               23 (K. Bellows, L. Shaw)
Assists            29 (J. Blandisi)
Points              49 (J. Blandisi)
PPG                 7 (J. Blandisi)
Shots               173 (K. Bellows)
+/-                    +18 (T. Miller)
PIMS                107 (Z. Solow)

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game:

I liked our response after our not very good start. We played extremely well in the second and third period. We gave them like five chances but I liked our possession game, we started moving the puck quicker and we just couldn’t get it by their goalie. We tried with a ton of chances but unfortunately we fell short so hopefully we can build off of those two periods and have a better start in the game tomorrow.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

March 16 vs. Rochester – 1:30 p.m. (Scotiabank Arena)
March 17 vs. Laval – 4:00 p.m.
March 22 at Rochester – 7:05 p.m.
March 23 vs. Hartford – 4:00 p.m.
March 24 vs. Laval – 4:00 p.m.

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