Toronto Marlies Complete 3-in-3 Weekend With Win Over Laval Rocket

The Toronto Marlies took down the Laval Rocket 7-1 on Sunday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum.

Kieffer Bellows opened the scoring for the Marlies 6:39 into the opening frame. Joseph Blandisi added a second goal just over a minute later, giving the Marlies a quick 2-0 lead. Roni Hirvonen and Nick Abruzzese scored at 18:16 and 19:42 in the first to wrap up a four goal first period for Toronto.

Emil Heineman scored the lone Rocket goal 8:01 into the second period. Dylan Gambrell restored the Marlies four goal lead just over two minutes later, giving Toronto a 5-1 advantage through 40 minutes of play.

Joseph Blandisi scored 4:03 into the third and Matteo Pietroniro added the seventh Marlies goal 16:31 into the final frame, securing a 7-1 win.

Dennis Hildeby stopped 30 of 31 shots on route to his 16^th victory this season. Sunday marked the tenth time this season that Hildeby has allowed one goal or less.

“Yeah, I mean, you can make some mistakes, you know he's going to have your back,” Matteo Pietroniro said about Hildeby. “He appreciates us putting in the work in front of him and he usually has our back all the time. So, it's always great to have him back there.”

Head Coach John Gruden said he was impressed with the team’s effort on Sunday as they finished off a set of three games in three nights.

“Again, what we talked about before the game, just our start.Knowing that we were going to get a team that's sitting here for a game, waiting for us. This our third game,” Gruden said. “I just liked our focus right from the get-go.” 

“Lot of good stuff to like today.”

The Marlies will be back in action in Rochester on Friday. Puck drop is at 7:05pm on AHLTV.

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SCORING SUMMARY
Laval: E. Heineman (12) PP (J. Barron, S. Farrell)
Goaltender: J. Dobes (4/8) L, K. Kaskisuo (10/13)

Toronto: K. Bellows (26) PP (D. Gambrell, M. Lajoie), J. Blandisi (22) (M. Pietroniro, W. Villeneuve), R. Hirvonen (4) (J. Slavin, T. Niemelä), N. Abruzzese (13) PP (L. Shaw, K. Bellows), D. Gambrell (12) (A. Steeves, G. Cruikshank), J. Blandisi (23) (Z. Solow, K. Clifford)
Goaltender: D. Hildeby (30/31) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Kieffer Bellows opened the scoring on the power play at 6:39 of the first period and later added the secondary assist on Abruzzese’s power play goal. He has points (3-3-6) in consecutive games. Bellows has 47 points (26 goals, 21 assists) in 51 games this season. He is tied for fourth in the AHL in goals scored.
• Joseph Blandisi scored the game-winning goal at 7:54 of the first period and scored at 4:03 of the third period. He has goals (3) in consecutive games. His third period goal was his 50^th with the Marlies.
• Roni Hirvonen scored at 18:16 of the first period. He has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) in 23 games this season.
• Nick Abruzzese scored on the power play at 19:42 of the first period. He has points (4-4-8) in five of his last six games. Abruzzese has 42 points (13 goals, 29 assists) in 58 games this season.
• Dylan Gambrell scored at 10:15 of the second period and earlierrecorded the primary assist on Bellows’ first period power play goal. He has 10 power play points (4 goals, 6 assists) through 56 games.
• Matteo Pietroniro scored at 16:31 of the third period and earlier had the primary assist on Blandisi’s first period goal. He has points (1-3-4) in consecutive games. Pietroniro has seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) in 26 games this season.
• Max Lajoie picked up the secondary assist on Bellows’ first period power play goal. He has 17 points (2 goals, 17 assists) in 43 games this season.
• William Villeneuve registered the secondary on Blandisi’s first period goal. He has 24 points (2 goals, 22 assists) in 47 games this season.
• Josiah Slavin recorded the primary assist on Hirvonen’s first period goal. He has 22 points (8 goals, 14 assists) in 57 games this season.
• Topi Niemelä had the secondary assist on Hirvonen’s first period goal. He has 30 points (6 goals, 24 assists) in 55 games this season.
• Logan Shaw picked up the primary assist on Abruzzese’s first period power play goal. He has points (4-7-11) in six of his last seven games. Shaw has 48 points (24 goals, 24 assists) in 54 games this season. This was his 150^th career AHL assist.
• Alex Steeves registered the primary assist on Gambrell’s second period goal.
• Grant Cruikshank recorded the secondary assist on Gambrell’s second period goal. He has four points (1 goal, 3 assists) in 13 games this season.
• Zach Solow had the primary assist on Blandisi’s third period goal. He has 21 points (9 goals, 12 assists) in 53 games this season.
• Kyle Clifford picked up the secondary assist on Blandisi’s third period goal.
• Dennis Hildeby stopped 30 of 31 shots he faced. He is 16-9-6 this season with a 2.51 goals against average and 0.907 save percentage. He is 4-0 against Laval.

TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies went 4-for-5 on the penalty kill and 2-for-4 on the power play. Toronto is 19-6-5-2 when scoring on the power play and 16-8-2-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill. This was Toronto’s 10^th multi-power play goal game this season. Toronto’s power play against Laval is 10/29 (34.5).
• Laval had a 31-25 edge in shots in all situations. Dylan Gambrell led the Marlies with four shots on goal. Toronto is 11-6-3-0 when outshot by their opponent.
• Toronto is 13-14-7-2 against North Division opponents and are 5-2-0-0 against the Rocket this season. Toronto has outscored Laval 31-16.

RECORD WHEN

Scoring first                                        25-4-7-2
Leading after 1^st                                  16-2-3-0
Leading after 2^nd                                  18-1-3-0
At home                                              12-10-6-0
March                                                  4-4-0-0
Sunday                                                6-2-3-0

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               26 (K. Bellows)
Assists            29 (N. Abruzzese, J. Blandisi)          
Points              52 (J. Blandisi)
PPG                 7 (J. Blandisi)
Shots               181 (K. Bellows)
+/-                    +18 (J. Blandisi, T. Miller)
PIMS                126 (K. Clifford)

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On what he liked from the team's effort tonight:

What we talked about before the game, just our start. Knowing that we were going to get a team that's sitting here for a game, waiting for us. This is our third game. I just liked our focus right from the get-go. I knew we needed to start good … I liked how we just kept pushing even though they had a little bit of a push in the second. I loved our response after their goal. Lot of good stuff to like today.

On how he can replicate this start again:

Just bottle it up and just do it again, I wish it was that easy. It's a long season, but the response that we had in the third period to today's game, it really says a lot about our group. It's exciting and at the end of the day now we know how we want to play. It's on them for the most part. We'll be there to guide them and support them. It's fun to see them play like that as a unit, as all 20 guys. It was a good win for us.

MATTEO PIETRONIRO (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)

On what he liked from the team effort:

Exactly that, a team effort. Think we stuck with it the whole game. Even when they had a little bit of a push back in the second, we stuck with it. Killed some penalties. Kind of just kept with our game, which is great.

On playing in front of Dennis Hildeby:

You can make some mistakes, you know he's going to have your back. He appreciates us putting in the work in front of him and he usually has our back all the time. So, it's always great to have him back there.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

March 22 at Rochester – 7:05 p.m.
March 23 vs. Hartford – 4:00 p.m.
March 24 vs. Laval – 4:00 p.m.
March 27 at Manitoba – 7:00 p.m. (CDT)
March 29 at Manitoba – 2:00 p.m. (CDT)

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