Toronto Marlies Fall To Griffins In 2nd Half Of Back-To-Back

The Grand Rapids Griffins defeated the Toronto Marlies 5-2 on Sunday evening to complete the second half of a back-to-back. The Griffins improve to 3-2-0-0 on the season, while the Marlies fall to 2-2-0-0.

In the first period, it was the visitors who struck first, as Donovan Sebrango scored just 1:37 into the frame. Later, Joey Anderson tallied his first of the season on the power-play to tie the game at one.

In the second period, the visitors kept pressing. Dominik Shine and Matt Luff both scored, giving  Grand Rapids a two goal lead through two periods of play.

In the final frame, Joey Anderson potted his second of the game to bring the home side within one. He now has five points in his last two games. Kyle Criscuolo and Cross Hanas both added another for the visitors before the game was over.

The Marlies return to action on Wednesday night when they host the Syracuse Crunch. Puck drop is at 7:00pm.

SCORING SUMMARY

Grand Rapids: D. Sebrango (1) (P. Andreasson, K. Tyutyayev), D. Shine (1) (J. Tyutyayev, G. Smith), M. Luff (3) PP (A. Czarnik, T. Hirose), C. Hanas (3) EN (Unassisted)
Goaltender: V. Brattstrom (8/8), J. Olkinuora (26/28) W

Toronto: J. Anderson (1) PP (N. Abruzzese, M. Hollowell), J. Anderson (2) (A. Steeves, M. Hollowell)
Goaltender: D. Ferguson (21/25) L

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ON THE SCORESHEET

• Joey Anderson put the Marlies on board at 17:40 of the first period and later added his second goal of the game at 1:34 of the third period. He has five points (2-3-5) through two consecutive games.
• Nick Abruzzese recorded the primary assist on Anderson’s first period goal. He has points (1-1-2) through consecutive games.
• Mac Hollowell had the secondary assists on both of Anderson’s goals. The first assist was Hollowell’s 50^th career AHL point.
• Alex Steeves picked up the primary assist on Anderson’s third period goal. He has points (4-3-7) in four consecutive games.
• Dylan Ferguson stopped 21 of 25 shots he faced. This was his first start for the Marlies.

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OF NOTE

• The Marlies went 4-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play. The Marlies have picked up a power play goal in each of their first four games of the season.
• Toronto had a 36-26 edge in shots in all situations. Joey Anderson led the Marlies with seven shots on goal.

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POSTGAME QUOTES

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HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On the challenges of today’s game:

The slow start. Early in the season, we’re going to have to learn this lesson early to make sure that we don’t let it happen again and we can have success this season. We found the win column yesterday. We had to have assumed that this team was going to be ready to come out and push back hard. It’s a really tough league to beat a team twice. I thought our start was flat. Then when you come out and teams are pushing against you and you’re flat, it’s hard to chase the game. We weren’t moving our feet or as physical as they were. Then you start taking penalties because you’re reaching from behind, we’re not in position. Ultimately for us, the start kind of got in the way.

ALEX STEEVES (1 ASSIST)

On takeaways from today’s game:

Start faster. It’s not like we didn’t do a lot of good things tonight, we just didn’t do them the whole game. It’s particularly disappointing because coming into the game our message was to start fast, and I just don’t think from top to bottom in the lineup we had enough guys having that burst and having that willingness and hunger to put it behind them and either make them draw a penalty or go get it and be physical and play down low. Good news is that we got a game on Wednesday and hopefully we have guys who are ready to play the right way for 60 minutes, myself included. Excited for Wednesday.

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

October 26 vs. Syracuse – 7:00 p.m.
October 28 at Syracuse – 7:00 p.m.
November 2 at Laval – 7:00 p.m.
November 4 at Laval – 7:00 p.m.
November 5 at Belleville – 7:05 p.m.