Marlies Fall 6-5 To Monsters

The Toronto Marlies split the weekend series at home after falling 6-5 to the Cleveland Monsters in overtime on Sunday. This is the fourth straight game to go past regulation for the Marlies.

The visitors opened up the scoring early, with a goal from Jake Christiansen. But, the Marlies responded with two of their own before the end of the first, courtesy of Brett Seney and Curtis Douglas.

Then in the second, the Marlies went up 4-1, after Jack Kopacka netted his first of the season and Pavel Gogolev tallied his second. Liam Foudy cut the Marlies lead in half before the period was over by scoring one of his own.

Cleveland came out flying in the third, scoring two goals in the first six minutes to tie the game at four apiece. Alex Steeves then gave the Marlies the lead back, but it was short-lived as Trey Fix-Wolansky tied it up again before the third came to an end, once again forcing overtime.

In the extra frame, Tyler Sikura sent the visitors home happy after re-directing the overtime winning goal past Michael Hutchinson. Hutchinson was a rock for the Marlies in net throughout the game, as he stopped 41 of the 47 shots he faced.

The Marlies face off against the Monsters again next weekend. Toronto visits Cleveland on Friday night at 7:00pm, before welcoming the Monsters back to Coca-Cola Coliseum again on Saturday afternoon for their Hockey Fights Cancer game.

Game Notes: 

GAME SUMMARY    |    GAME SHEET |    PHOTOS    |      SCRUMS

SCORING SUMMARY

Cleveland: J. Christiansen (4) (Unassisted), L. Foudy (4) (K. Stenlund), B. Gaunce (7) (T. Fix-Wolansky, T. Angle), C. Meyer (5) (A. Helewka, J. Christiansen), T. Fix-Wolansky (2) (B. Gaunce, K. Stenlund), T. Sikura (3) PP (J. Christiansen, B. Gaunce)
Goaltender: D. Tarasov (23/28)

Toronto: B. Seney (8) PP (S. Der-Arguchintsev, J. Duszak), C. Douglas (2) (A. Steeves), J. Kopacka (1) PP (P. Gogolev, S. Der-Arguchintsev), P. Gogolev (2) (J. Kopacka, B. Seney), A. Steeves (6) (K. Rubīns, J. Duszak)
Goaltender: M. Hutchinson (41/47)

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Brett Seney put the Marlies on the board with a power play goal at 9:22 of the first period and later added the secondary assist on Gogolev’s second period goal. He has points (3-4-7) in three consecutive games.
• Curtis Douglas scored at 17:07 of the first period. He has points (2-2-4) in four of his last five games.
• Jack Kopacka scored on the power play at 11:35 of the second period and later added the primary assist on Gogolev’s second period goal. This was his first goal of the season.
• Pavel Gogolev scored at 18:27 of the second period and earlier added the primary assist on Kopacka’s second period goal. He has five points (2 goals, 3 assists) in 11 games this season.
• Alex Steeves scored at 8:47 of the third period and earlier had the lone assist on Douglas’ first period goal. He has nine points (6 goals, 3 assists) in nine games this season.
• Semyon Der-Arguchintsev recorded the primary assist on Seney’s first period goal and the secondary assist on Kopacka’s second period goal. He has points (3-3-6) through five games this season.
• Joseph Duszak picked up the secondary assists on Seney’s first period power play goal and Steeves’ third period goal. He has assists (6) in five consecutive games. Duszak is tied for second in the league in assists (12).
• Kristiāns Rubīns had the primary assist on Steeves’ third period goal.
• Michael Hutchinson stopped 41 of 47 shots he faced. He is 2-1 in overtime games this season.

OF NOTE

• Toronto went 3-for-4 on the penalty kill and 2-for-3 on the power play. This is the first time this season Toronto has recorded multiple power play goals in a single game.
• Cleveland had a 47-28 edge in shots in all situations. Kyle Clifford led the Marlies with four shots on goal.
• The Marlies are 4-3-1-1 against North Division opponents and 1-0-1-0 against the Cleveland Monsters.

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On today’s game:
It was a strange game. We got too much into a foot race with this team. They had a really good transition game. They break out fast, they get above pressure really well. Early on, you could see the guys were committed to playing the right way, they wanted to put pucks to the bottom, establish our O-zone. We were a little disconnected with our pressure with F1 and F2. I thought that got better as the game went on but even so with our F3 trying to stay above, they have a really good breakout and line rush game, and it was tough to handle for us tonight. It’s definitely something we’ll have to focus on in the next two matchups coming in, but it wasn’t one of our better games throughout the 60 minutes. We had moments. We’ll continue to find that consistency and there were definitely guys out there competing. It was just one of those strange games where it was hard to find real rhythm and flow, but then at times we made some good plays and did some good things. We’ll just have to watch some video and digest it tonight.

On the power play (2 goals):

Those were big points for them. Early in the season there were a lot of things being done well and you could say they were at times unlucky. This last recent stretch there has been more clenching the sticks tight. Today was a good momentum builder for them.

JOSEPH DUSZAK (2 ASSISTS)

On today’s game:

We got a young team, so a lot of inexperience in the league. Any period, first, second, third period, the game’s never over. There’s a lot of good players in this league a lot of players that could be in the NHL, so you can’t just give them time and space and lay off the pedal or else they’re going to put it down your throat.

On the power play:

I like how we competed. We outworked the other team. Our break-ins were good, kicking out wide, driving, getting depth into the zone and then just outnumbering them. We have a lot of skilled players on this team on the power play and sometimes we don’t want to get dirty, but tonight I felt like we got dirty. We went into the corners, won the battles, outnumbered them, got the puck back and we were able to attack.

TRANSACTIONS

November 19: Returned forward Jeremy McKenna on loan to Newfoundland (ECHL).
November 19: Recalled goaltender Keith Petruzzelli from loan to Newfoundland (ECHL).

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

November 26 at Cleveland – 7:00 p.m.
November 27 vs Cleveland – 4:00 p.m.
December 4 vs Springfield – 4:00 p.m.
December 5 vs Laval – 4:00 p.m.
December 10 at Springfield – 7:05 p.m.

Game Preview: 

The Toronto Marlies host the Cleveland Monsters on Sunday for the first of three straight meetings between the two teams. The two last met on October 24th at Coca-Cola Coliseum where the Marlies came out on top 3-2 after a shootout.

Toronto currently sits second in the North division, while Cleveland is just behind them in third. The Monsters are coming off of two straight victories against Syracuse, while the Marlies are riding the high from an overtime win against Lehigh Valley on Saturday evening. The Marlies are 4-3-0-1 against North Division opponents this season.

Some players to watch on the Marlies side include Josh Ho-Sang who has eight goals and 12 points so far this season, and Brett Seney who sits second on the team in points with 11. On the Monsters side, Tyler Angle also leads the team with 12 points.

Puck drops at 4:00 PM EST on Leafs Nation Network and AHLTV. Fans can also follow along on Twitter (@TorontoMarlies) for game updates.