Toronto Marlies Fall to Amerks’ In Season Opener

The Toronto Marlies fell 4-2 to the Rochester Americans in their season opener on Friday night in Rochester.

In the first period, it was Alex Steeves who opened the scoring for the Marlies with his first of the year. But, it was the special teams for the Americans that made a difference in this one.

Linus Weissbach and Brett Murray both scored on the power-play to give the home side a 2-1 lead after the first 20 minutes. The score remained the same through the middle frame, before Rochester doubled up in the final frame. Chase Priskie scored shorthanded, while Isak Rosen tallied another on the power play.

The Marlies got one back late in the 3rd on a power-play goal from newcomer Logan Shaw. Alex Steeves finished the game with one goal and one assist.

The two teams meet again for the second half of a back-to-back on Saturday in Toronto at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Puck drops at 4:00pm.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: A. Steeves (1) (P. Holmberg), L. Shaw (1) PP (N. Robertson, A. Steeves)
Goaltender: E. Källgren (16/18), D. Ferguson (5/7) L

Rochester: L. Weissbach (1) PP (S. Malone, I. Rosen), B. Murray (1) PP (J. Kulich, L. Rousek), C. Priskie (1) SH (B. Biro, L. Weissbach), I. Rosen (1) PP (L. Pilut, S. Malone)
Goaltender: U. Luukkonen (22/24) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Alex Steeves opened the scoring at 3:30 of the first period and later added the secondary assist on Shaw’s third period goal. This was his 14^th career AHL multipoint game.
• Logan Shaw scored on the power play at 17:26 of the third period. He had recorded 35 points (15 goals, 20 assists) in 53 games last season with the Belleville Senators.
• Pontus Holmberg recorded the primary assist on Steeves’ first period goal.
• Nicholas Robertson registered the secondary assist on Shaw’s third period goal.
• Erik Källgren stopped 16 of 18 shots he faced in 27:34 of action. He was removed from the game following an injury and was replaced by Dylan Ferguson midway through the second period. Ferguson stopped 5 of 7 shots he faced in relief.

OF NOTE

• Toronto is 13-5-0 all time in season openers and 3-2-0 when opening the season on the road.
• The Marlies went 3-for-6 on the penalty kill and 1-for-5 on the power play.
• Rochester had a 25-24 edge in shots in all situations. Nicholas Robertson and Logan Shaw led the Marlies with five shots on goal.

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On tonight’s game:

Definitely disappointing result. Thought we came out with really good intentions in the first period. Our effort and compete level was really high. It doesn’t matter what game of the year it is we can’t take that many minors and expect ourselves to find a win. We’ve got stay out of the box. If we’re going to take penalties from being physical and being hard to play against, those are things we can kill off. We’ve got to eliminate the stick infractions. The second period, they turned it on. We allowed them momentum towards our net on their breakouts. They’re really fast. We’ve got to get over top of them and in the defensive zone, they were able to stay in motion. We’ve got to make sure we stall out their momentum.

LOGAN SHAW (1 GOAL)

On tonight’s game:

We pushed right to the end. We want to be a team that’s going to be hard to play against … With me being a little older, I want to make sure that these guys are here to play every night and make sure we push the right way for the 60 minutes, whether you’re down 4-1 or up 4-1. It’s okay. It’s the first game of the year. We have a lot of hockey left. This one we can learn from but forget about it for tomorrow.

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

October 15 vs. Rochester – 4:00 p.m.
October 22 vs. Grand Rapids – 4:00 p.m.
October 23 vs. Grand Rapids – 4:00 p.m.
October 26 vs. Syracuse – 7:00 p.m.
October 28 at Syracuse – 7:00 p.m.