Toronto Marlies Fall To Springfield Thunderbirds

The Toronto Marlies fell 5-1 to the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday night. The two teams will meet again in Toronto in early April.

In the first period, former Toronto Marlie Adam Gaudette opened the scoring against his former team with a power play goal at 14:29.

In the second period, Gaudette scored another, giving Springfield a 2-0 lead. Alex Steeves responded for the visitors, scoring his 20th goal of the season just a couple of minutes later. Hunter Skinner would add another for the home team before the period was over.

In the third, former Toronto Marlie Joseph Duszak added another for the Thunderbirds, before Gaudette completed the hat trick with an empty net goal at 18:01.

The Marlies return to action on Friday night in Rochester. Puck drop is at 7:05 on AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY
Toronto: A. Steeves (20) (J. Blandisi, R. Tverberg)
Goaltender: K. Petruzzelli (24/28) L

Springfield: A. Gaudette (32) PP (J. Duszak, R. Suzuki), A. Gaudette (33) (M. Abramov, M. Hoelscher), H. Skinner (3) (M. Abramov, J. Vrana), J. Duszak (7) (A. Gaudette, W. Kalynuk), A. Gaudette (34) EN (K. Washkurak, D. Callin)
Goaltender: C. Ellis (47/48) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Alex Steeves put the Marlies on the board at 13:33 of the second period. This is his second career 20-goal season. He has 44 points (20 goals, 24 assists) in 49 games this season.
• Joseph Blandisi recorded the primary assist on Steeves’ second period goal. He has 49 points (20 goals, 29 assists) in 54 games this season.
• Ryan Tverberg had the secondary assist on Steeves’ second period goal. He has 30 points (9 goals, 21 assists) in 39 games this season.
• Keith Petruzzelli stopped 24 of 28 shots he faced.

TEAM NOTES

• Toronto now has four players (K. Bellows, J. Blandisi, L. Shaw, A. Steeves) who have recorded 20 goals for the fourth time in franchise history.
• Alex Steeves recorded his 62^nd goal with the Marlies, tying him for third in franchise history.
• The Marlies went 7-for-8 on the penalty kill and 0-for-4 on the power play. Toronto is 8-13-4-0 when not scoring on the power play and 11-11-7-1 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto had a 48-29 edge in shots in all situations. Kieffer Bellows led the Marlies with eight shots on goal. Toronto is 16-13-6-2 when outshooting their opponent.
• Toronto is 8-4-2-0 against Atlantic Division opponents and are 0-1-0-0 against the Thunderbirds this season.

RECORD WHEN

Not scoring first                                  2-16-2-0
Trailing after 1^st                                   2-11-1-0
Trailing after 2^nd                                  3-15-4-1
On the road                                        15-9-3-2
March                                                  2-3-0-0
Saturday                                              7-6-3-1

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               23 (K. Bellows)
Assists            28 (J. Blandisi)
Points              48 (J. Blandisi)
PPG                 7 (J. Blandisi)
Shots               167 (K. Bellows)
+/-                    +18 (T. Miller)
PIMS                107 (Z. Solow)

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game:

They did a good job of sticking to their structure and they capitalized on some power plays early on and they got the momentum and we just were never able to get it back. Their goalie made some big saves. Our guys were working but at the end of the day, it wasn’t good enough. It was a good opportunity for us to get six points in our last three games and we fell short.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

March 15 at Rochester – 7:05 p.m.
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.

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