Toronto Sweeps Weekend Series Against Iowa

IA 1 - TOR 2

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Iowa: D. Jiříček (1) (M. Kiersted, N. Aube-Kubel)
Goaltender: C. Petersen (21/23) L

Toronto: W. Villeneuve (2) (V. Lettieri, H. Thrun), B. Smith (1) (M. Johnstone, M. Pezzetta)
Goaltender: A. Akhtyamov (36/37) W    

ON THE SCORESHEET

• William Villeneuve opened the scoring at 5:19 of the first period. He has 11 points (2 goal, 9 assists) in 17 games this season.
• Blake Smith scored at 12:15 of the second period. This was his first professional goal.
• Vinni Lettieri recorded the primary assist on Villeneuve’s first period goal. He has seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) in 13 games this season.
• Henry Thrun had the secondary assist on Villeneuve’s first period goal. He has nine points (3 goals, 6 assists) in 16 games this season.
• Marc Johnstone registered the primary assist on Smith’s second period goal. He has two points (1 goal, 1 assist) in seven games this season.
• Michael Pezzetta had the secondary assist on Smith’s second period goal. He has assists (2) in consecutive games.
• Artur Akhtyamov stopped 36 of 37 shots he faced. He is 2-1-0-0 this season when facing 30 or more shots. Akhtyamov is 6-3-0 this season with a 2.56 goals against average and a 0.914 save percentage.

TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies were 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play. Toronto is 4-5-1-0 when not scoring on the power play and 6-3-0-0 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Iowa outshot Toronto 37-23. Luke Haymes led the Marlies with four shots on goal. Toronto is 5-4-0-0 when outshot by their opponent.
• The Marlies are 3-2-1-0 against Central Division opponents and are 2-0-0-0 against the Wild.

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On today’s game:

I liked the result. I liked our goaltending. I liked the penalty kill. I loved some of the blocked shots that our PK, they dug in and I thought they won us that game. They were outstanding. Some good efforts from the Johnstone line. We were too sporadic. It’s still not our template in how we want to play a full game. I do like some of the times of our players digging in and getting a win. We played a desperate hockey team and I thought Artie was definitely a bright spot for sure.

BLAKE SMITH (1^st PROFESSIONAL GOAL)

On his goal:

It’s definitely a relief to get it somewhat early in the season. It’s nice to get off the back. When it went in, I just had a lot of emotion. Super excited and nice to see it go through.

On the reaction form his teammates:

I thought they played a good game today. They came out hard. Did that the whole game. So, it’s tiring as a team when the other team is coming that hard on you. I thought we did a pretty good job of weathering it. They played a good game and we got some good bounces.