Toronto Marlies Fall To Rochester Americans In Mid-Week Matchup

The Toronto Marlies fell 3-1 to the Rochester Americans on Wednesday night.

In the first period, Juri Kulich scored at 15:43 to give the Amerks a 1-0 lead. In the middle frame, Roni Hirvonen scored on the power play to tie the game at one.

Brandon Biro and Kulich both added goals in the second to give Rochester a 3-1 lead. No goals were scored in the third, so the final score remained 3-1.

The Marlies return home for the final weekend of the regular season as they host the Cleveland Monsters for two straight. Puck drop is at 4:00pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs app and AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY
Toronto: R. Hirvonen (7) PP (T. Niemelä, R. Mastrosimone)
Goaltender: M. Murray (24/27) L

Rochester: J. Kulich (26) (I. Rosen, A. Kisakov), B. Biro (15) SH (I. Rosen), J. Kulich (27) (J. Davies, L. Rousek)
Goaltender: D. Levi (34/35) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Roni Hirvonen put the Marlies on the board on the power play at 12:20 of the second period. He has 13 points (7 goals, 6 assists) in 35 games this season.
• Topi Niemelä recorded the primary assist on Hirvonen’s second period power play goal. He leads all Marlies in power play assists (13).
• Robert Mastrosimone had the secondary assist on Hirvonen’s second period power play goal. He has 15 points (4 goals, 11 assists) in 44 games this season.
• Matt Murray stopped 24 of 27 shots he faced.

TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play. Toronto is 23-8-5-2 when scoring on the power play and 20-10-2-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto had a 35-27 edge in shots in all situations. Nick Abruzzese and Joseph Blandisi led the Marlies with five shots on goal. Toronto is 18-17-6-2 when outshooting their opponent.
• Toronto is 17-17-8-2 against North Division opponents and finish their regular season series 2-2-2-0 against the Americans. Rochester outscored Toronto 19-18 while the Marlies outshot the Americans 224-170 through the six-game series. Logan Shaw led all Marlies in goals (4) and points (8) and was tied for assists (4) with Nick Abruzzese and Marshall Rifai.

RECORD WHEN

Not scoring first                                  4-18-2-2
Trailing after 1^st                                   3-14-1-0
Trailing after 2^nd                                  3-19-4-1
On the road                                        18-12-3-2
April                                                    4-2-1-0
Wednesday                                          5-6-2-0

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               30 (L. Shaw)
Assists            35 (N. Abruzzese)        
Points              59 (J. Blandisi)
PPG                 8 (L. Shaw)
Shots               192 (A. Steeves)
+/-                    +18 (J. Blandisi, T. Miller)
PIMS                138 (K. Clifford)

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game:

For the most part, I thought we played a pretty good game. We just have to understand that if we play this team we just have to stay patient. I thought we had a lot of good looks, controlled the majority of the play. It’s just that we have to stay patient especially against a goaltender like him and how dangerous they can be as well so, we can’t let our foot off the gas. For the most part, I thought we did a lot of good things. It gave us a little bit of a taste of playoff hockey and what to expect moving forward.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

April 20 vs. Cleveland – 4:00 p.m.
April 21 vs. Cleveland – 4:00 p.m.

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