Marlies News

The Toronto Marlies fell 7-5 to the Cleveland Monsters on Wednesday night.

In the first period Cleveland opened the scoring as Jake Christiansen and Tyler Angle both scored to give the Monsters an early 2-0 lead.

However, in the second, Alex Steeves tallied his 16th goal of the season with a power play goal. Shortly after, Kyle Clifford tied the game at two with his sixth of the season. But, Tyler Angle added another for the Monsters, giving them a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.

In the final frame, Joseph Blandisi tied the game at three just over five minutes in. Cleveland would re-take the lead thanks to a goal from Cole Clayton just under two minutes later. And, about 40 seconds after that, Kyle Clifford tied the game at four with his 2nd of the night. Owen Sillinger gave the Monsters the lead once again, but it was short-lived as Max Lajoie tied the game at five a few minutes later. But, Cleveland added two more, including an empty net goal, before the final buzzer, giving them a 7-5 victory.

The Marlies return to action on Saturday when they visit the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Puck drop is at 7:05pm on AHLTV.

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Game notes:

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: A. Steeves (16) PP (L. Shaw, R. Tverberg), K. Clifford (6) (A. Steeves, R. Tverberg), J. Blandisi (10) (R. Tverberg, K. Bellows), K. Clifford (7) (J. Blandisi, M. Lajoie), M. Lajoie (2) (M. Ellis, L. Shaw)Goaltender: D. Hildeby (12/18) L

Cleveland: J. Christiansen (8) (C. Clayton, M. Pyyhtia), T. Angle (2) (J. Pearsons, C. Butler), T. Angle (3) (Unassisted), C. Clayton (2) (J. Christiansen, T. Fix-Wolansky), O. Sillinger (8) (L. Del Bel Belluz, T. Fix-Wolansky), O. Sillinger (9) (H. McKown, T. Fix-Wolansky), J. Christiansen (9) EN (M. Pyyhtia, C. Meyer)Goaltender: J. Greaves (33/38) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

Alex Steeves put the Marlies on the board on the power play at 4:41 of the second period and later added the primary assist on Clifford’s goal in the second period. He has points (4-3-7) in four consecutive games. Steeves has 34 points (16 goals, 18 assists) in 31 games this season.Kyle Clifford scored at 9:32 of the second period and at 7:31 of the third period. He has 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists) in 27 games this season.Joseph Blandisi scored at 5:10 of the third period and later added the primary assist on Clifford’s third period goal. He has 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 35 games this season.Max Lajoie scored at 15:59 of the third period and earlier picked up the secondary assist on Clifford’s third period goal. He has 14 points (2 goals, 12 assists) in 26 games this season.Logan Shaw recorded the primary assist on Steeves’ second period power play goal and the secondary assist on Lajoie’s third period goal. He has points (3-2-5) in three consecutive games. Shaw has 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) in 33 games this season.Ryan Tverberg had the secondary assists on Steeves’ and Clifford’s second period goals. He also had the primary assist on Blandisi’s third period goal. This was his fifth multipoint game of the season. He has points (1-4-5) in three consecutive games. Tverberg has 23 points (7 goals, 16 assists) in 21 games with the Marlies.Kieffer Bellows registered the secondary assist on Blandisi’s third period goal. He has 30 points (16 goals, 14 assists) in 28 games this season.Max Ellis had the primary assist on Lajoie’s third period goal. He has points (1-2-3) in three consecutive games. He has 13 points (3 goals, 10 assists) in 29 games this season.Dennis Hildeby stopped 12 of 18 shots he faced.TEAM NOTES

The Marlies went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play. The Marlies have recorded a power play goal in eight of its last 10 games (26.1). Toronto is 9-5-4-1 when scoring on the power play and 9-6-0-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.Toronto had a 38-19 edge in shots in all situations. Max Lajoie led the Marlies with six shots on goal. Toronto is 11-11-4-1 when outshooting their opponent.The Marlies are 4-10-5-1 against North Division opponents and 0-3-1-1 against the Monsters.Toronto is 2-2-0-0 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

Not scoring first 1-10-1-0

Trailing after 1st 2-7-1-0

Trailing after 2nd 2-10-1-0

On the road 8-7-1-1

January 3-4-1-0

Wednesday 1-4-0-0

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MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals 16 (K. Bellows, A. Steeves)

Assists 20 (N. Abruzzese, J. Blandisi)
Points 34 (A. Steeves)

PPG 4 (A. Steeves, R. Tverberg)

Shots 103 (L. Shaw)

+/- +18 (J. Blandisi)

PIMS 72 (K. Clifford)

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POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game:We didn’t start bad but we really came at them in the second and third period. We did a lot of good things. Unfortunate we didn’t get any results from it as far as points but if you look at the style of play and the non-quit in our group, there’s a lot of positives to take away. We’ve been working hard and trying. It stings a little bit for everybody but we’re going to learn from it and move ahead.

JOSEPH BLANDISI (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)

On the team’s resiliency:I was definitely proud of our effort tonight. We really stuck together. Some of the bounces just didn’t go our way. Took a bounce off the Zamboni door, we could have shut it down just then but you see our guys pull together and we find a way to claw back in that game and honestly, I thought we deserved better there in the end.

On the team moving forward:We knew there was going to be ups and downs through an eight-game road trip. We’ve just got to stick with it. We were happy with our two efforts in Charlotte and again with the effort tonight so, I think we’re starting to build some consistency and we’re going to get some more results if we keep this up.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

January 27 at Lehigh Valley – 7:05 p.m.January 28 at Hershey – 5:00 p.m.January 31 at WB/Scranton – 7:05 p.m.February 2 at Utica – 7:00 p.m.February 3 at Utica – 5:00 p.m.

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Game Recap