Toronto Marlies Continue Road Trip With Win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

The Toronto Marlies defeated the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-1 on Wednesday night.

In the first period, both teams exchanged chances, but the score remained 0-0 after 20 minutes of play.

In the second, Josiah Slavin opened the scoring just over four minutes in to give the Marlies a 1-0 lead.

In the final frame, Jonathan Gruden, son of Marlies Head Coach John Gruden, scored at 7:22 to tie the game at one. Just 18 seconds later, Nick Abruzzese gave the Marlies the lead again with his seventh of the season. Before the game was over, both Logan Shaw and Zach Solow scored empty net goals to send the Marlies home with a 4-1 victory.

Dennis Hildeby earned his 10th win of the season, stopping 31 of the 32 shots he faced.

The Marlies head to Utica for the final stop of their Boat Show Road Trip. Puck drop is at 7:00pm on Friday, February 2nd on AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto:  J. Slavin (5) (Z. Solow, R. Mastrosimone), N. Abruzzese (7) (L. Shaw, R. Hirvonen), L. Shaw (15) EN (J. Blandisi), Z. Solow (5) EN (Unassisted)Goaltender: D. Hildeby (31/32) W

WB/Scranton: J. Gruden (9) (M. Johnstone, J. Joshua)Goaltender: J. Blomqvist (18/20) L

ON THE SCORESHEET

Josiah Slavin opened the scoring at 4:08 of the second period. He has 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 38 games this season.Nick Abruzzese scored the game-winning goal at 7:40 of the third period. This was his third game-winning goal of the season. He has 29 points (7 goals, 22 assists) in 39 games this season.Logan Shaw scored on the empty net at 17:28 of the third period and earlier had the primary assist on Abruzzese’s third period goal. He has 29 points (15 goals, 14 assists) in 36 games this season.Zach Solow scored on the empty net at 18:08 of the third period and earlier recorded the primary assist on Slavin’s second period goal. He has 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) in 34 games this season.Robert Mastrosimone had the secondary assist on Slavin’s second period goal. He has six points (2 goals, 4 assists) in 28 games this season.Roni Hirvonen picked up the secondary assist on Abruzzese’s third period goal. This was his first career AHL point.Joseph Blandisi registered the lone assist on Shaw’s third period goal. He has points (2-5-7) in four consecutive games. Blandisi has 35 points (11 goals, 24 assists) in 38 games this season.Dennis Hildeby stopped 31 of 32 shots he faced.

TEAM NOTES

Toronto finishes the month of January 5-4-2-0 and have outscored their opponents 42-36. Logan Shaw has netted two game-winning goals. Ryan Tverberg led all Marlies in points (15) and assists (10) with Kieffer Bellows recording seven goals, both through 11 games.The Marlies went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the power play. Toronto is 8-9-1-0 when not scoring on the power play and 10-6-1-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had a 32-22 edge in shots in all situations. Cameron Gaunce led the Marlies with four shots on goal. Toronto is 7-3-2-0 when outshot by their opponent.The Marlies are 8-2-1-0 against Atlantic Division opponents and 1-0-0-0 against the Penguins this season.Toronto is 4-2-1-0 on their annual Boat Show Road Trip. The club will face six different clubs in seven games and return to Coca-Cola Coliseum on Feb. 9.

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RECORD WHEN

Scoring first                                        17-3-4-1

Tied after 1st                                        5-5-3-1

Leading after 2nd                                  14-1-3-0

On the road                                        10-7-2-1

January                                               5-4-2-0

Wednesday                                          2-4-0-0

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               18 (K. Bellows)

Assists            24 (J. Blandisi)

Points              35 (J. Blandisi)

PPG                 4 (A. Steeves, R. Tverberg)

Shots               112 (L. Shaw)

+/-                    +19 (M. Rifai)

PIMS                72 (K. Clifford)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game:They’re a quick start team so, we needed to make sure we matched whatever they threw at us and I thought we did a really good job coming out of the gates and then they had their pushes and we were able to manage it. I thought our penalty kill was outstanding, (Hildeby) was really good and we checked well and we stayed above them. It gave us a chance to win against a tough road team and we’re fortunate we came out ahead.

On the team’s third period:We bend but we don’t break. We’ve got good layers and if they beat one guy, it seems like we’re doing a really good job covering up for one another and that’s important to do especially against good hockey teams in their building in the third period. We managed it extremely well and got good efforts from some guys and we were able to come away with the victory.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

February 2 at Utica – 7:00 p.m.

February 3 at Utica – 5:00 p.m.

February 9 vs. Laval – 7:00 p.m.

February 10 vs. Laval – 4:00 p.m.

February 14 vs. WB/Scranton – 11:00 a.m.

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