The Toronto Marlies fell to the Cleveland Monsters 2-1 on Wednesday evening at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Toronto is now fourth in the North Division with a 13-11-4-1 record.
Dylan Gambrell opened the scoring with a power play goal five minutes into the second period, giving the Marlies a 1-0 lead. Cleveland quickly answered with a goal from Carson Meyer three minutes later, tying the game at one. Jake Gaudet scored the Monsters’ game winner just over three minutes into the third period.
After the game Head Coach John Gruden said the team played well, but they need to find a way to close out close games.
“I thought we played extremely well, but just not good enough,”Gruden said. “We have to find a way. As a coaching staff we have to be betterand help our guys. Give them the best chance to win a hockey game.”
“I don't think they really changed much. Think they kind of just stuck to their game,” Gambrell said about theMonsters’ ability to win the game in the third. “Kind of been a story for us lately where we start out well. Game kinda changes as it goes on, so that's something we gotta focus on. Playing a full 60 minutes.”
Despite the loss, the Marlies turned in a perfect afternoon on the penalty kill. Toronto is now third in theNorth Division with an 82.7% success rate on the penalty kill.
“Well, we were committed. We blocked a lot of shots. We took away a lot of their dangerous players,” Gruden said about the PK. “We cleared pucks when we had the opportunity. They didn't have much going on there. That was definitely a bright spot for us for sure.”
The Marlies will be back in action on Saturday at Coca-ColaColiseum against the Syracuse Crunch. Puck drop is at 4:00pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs app and AHLTV.
Game notes:
SCORING SUMMARY
Cleveland: C. Meyer (14) (L. Del Bel Belluz), J. Gaudet (3) (R. Ahcan, C. Butler)Goaltender: J. Greaves (29/30) W
Toronto: D. Gambrell (5) (K. Clifford, R. Tverberg)Goaltender: K. Petruzzelli (26/28) L
ON THE SCORESHEET
Dylan Gambrell opened the scoring on the power play at 5:02 of the second period. He has 17 points (5 goals, 12 assists) in 28 games this season.Kyle Clifford picked up the primary assist on Gambrell’s second period power play goal. He has 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 23 games this season.Ryan Tverberg had the secondary assist on Gambrell’s second period power play goal. He has 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) in 14 games this season.Keith Petruzzelli stopped 26 of 28 shots he faced.TEAM NOTES
The Marlies went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play. Toronto is 6-3-3-1 when scoring on the power play and 6-5-0-1 when not scoring on the power play.Toronto had a 30-29 edge in shots in all situations. Kieffer Bellows and Dylan Gambrell led the Marlies with four shots on goal. Toronto is 8-8-3-1 when outshooting their opponent.The Marlies are 3-7-4-1 against North Division opponents and are 0-2-1-1 against the Monsters.RECORD WHEN
Scoring first 12-3-4-1Tied after 1st 1-5-2-1Tied after 2nd 2-2-0-1At home 7-6-3-0January 0-1-0-0Wednesday 1-3-0-0
MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players
Goals 11 (K. Bellows, A. Steeves)Assists 18 (N. Abruzzese)
Points 25 (A. Steeves)PPG 3 (D. Ovchinnikov)Shots 82 (L. Shaw)+/- +15 (J. Blandisi)PIMS 53 (K. Clifford)
POSTGAME QUOTES
DYLAN GAMBRELL (1 GOAL)
On what the team needs to break out of recent losses:I think it's just getting back to the simple details. That's always something you can rely on when things aren't going your way. Just being hard on pucks, playing with detail. Within that the plays start to open up. The offence starts to come. We're right there. A couple more tweaks and I think we're going to get over the hump, we've just got to stick with it.
UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time
January 6 vs. Syracuse – 4:00 p.m.January 7 vs. Syracuse – 4:00 p.m.January 12 vs. Belleville – 7:00 p.m.January 14 at Belleville – 2:00 p.m.January 20 at Charlotte – 4:00 p.m.
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