Toronto Marlies Drop Mid-Week Matchup vs. Cleveland Monsters

The Toronto Marlies fell 3-2 to the Cleveland Monsters on Wednesday night. Cleveland has won all of the matchups between the two clubs so far this season.

In the first period, the home side struck first with a goal from Corson Ceulemans at 17:45. In the middle frame, Joseph Blandisi got one back for the visitors just 1:09 into the period. But, Cleveland responded 30 seconds later with a goal from Trey Fix-Wolansky.

In the final frame, the Monsters added another goal from Owen Sillinger to take a 3-2 victory.

The Marlies return to action on Saturday afternoon when they host the Belleville Senators. Puck drop is at 4:00pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs app and AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto:  J. Blandisi (7) (D. Gambrell, M. Kokkonen), R. Tverberg (2) (K. Bellows, J. Blandisi)Goaltender: D. Hildeby (30/33) L

Cleveland: C. Ceulemans (2) (Unassisted), T. Fix-Wolansky (10) (M. Bjork, S. Svozil), O. Sillinger (3) (C. Clayton, R. Ahcan)Goaltender: J. Greaves (24/26) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

Joseph Blandisi scored at 1:01 of the second period and later added the secondary assist on Tverberg’s third period goal. This was his sixth multipoint game of the season. He has 22 points (7 goals, 15 assists) in 26 games this season.Ryan Tverberg scored at 13:04 of the third period. He has 10 points (2 goals, 8 assists) in 12 games this season.Dylan Gambrell recorded the primary assist on Blandisi’ second period goal. He has 16 points (4 goals, 12 assists) in 26 games this season.Mikko Kokkonen had the secondary assist on Blandisi’s second period goal. He has eight points (3 goals, 5 assists) in 24 games this season.Kieffer Bellows registered the primary assist on Tverberg’s third period goal. He has points (5-3-8) in six consecutive games. Bellows has 20 points (11 goals, 9 assists) in 20 games with this season.Dennis Hildeby stopped 30 of 33 shots he faced.TEAM NOTES

The Marlies went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-4 on the power play. Toronto is 7-8-1-0 when not scoring on the power play and 6-5-0-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.Cleveland had a 33-26 edge in shots in all situations. Kieffer Bellows led the Marlies with five shots on goal. Toronto is 5-3-1-0 when outshot by their opponent.The Marlies are 3-6-3-1 against North Division opponents and are 0-1-1-1 against the Monsters.RECORD WHEN

Not scoring first                                  1-8-0-0Trailing after 1st                                   1-5-0-0Trailing after 2nd                                  2-8-1-0On the road                                        6-5-1-1December                                            5-5-0-0Wednesday                                          1-2-0-0

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               11 (K. Bellows, A. Steeves)Assists            17 (N. Abruzzese)
Points              25 (A. Steeves)PPG                 3 (D. Ovchinnikov)Shots               75 (L. Shaw)+/-                    +16 (J. Blandisi)PIMS                53 (K. Clifford)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game:We’re chasing the game. We were not very good tonight. There are no excuses. They were better than we were and we were chasing the game. We thought we could somehow squeak it out but unfortunately, we were not able to get that done. Credit to them and we’ll just get back to work and get back to work on Saturday.

JOSEPH BLANDISI (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)

On moving forward from tonight’s loss:It’s a mindset. Obviously, everybody’s feeling good when you’re winning five in a row and things are going well and everyone’s getting points, things like that. It’s easy to stay positive but when the ball starts falling a little bit, we need to saddle up a little bit and try to be better on nights like this.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

December 30 vs. Belleville – 4:00 p.m.January 3 vs. Cleveland – 4:00 p.m.January 6 vs. Syracuse – 4:00 p.m.January 7 vs. Syracuse – 4:00 p.m.January 12 vs. Belleville – 7:00 p.m.