Toronto Marlies Sweep Season Series Over Griffins

The Toronto Marlies took down the Grand Rapids Griffins 3-1 on Sunday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Toronto is now tied for third in the North Division with a 10-7-3-1 record.  

Topi Niemelä opened the scoring for the Marlies 10:21 into the first period, giving Toronto a quick 1-0 lead. Nick Abruzzese extended the Marlies lead to two with a power play goal just over 11 minutes into the second period. Joel L’Esperance picked up the Griffins’ first goal of the game with just over a minute remaining in the second, cutting the Marlies lead to one heading into the final frame.

Pontus Holmberg added the third Marlies goal just under 10minutes into the third, securing the win for Toronto. Holmberg has scored four goals in his last five games. With an assist on the game’s opening goal, Alex Steeves also extended his league-leading point streak to 13 games.

 Dennis Hildeby picked up his fifth win, stopping 20 of 21shots. Hildeby now sits second in the league with a 1.80 goals against average.

After the game, head coach John Gruden said Sunday’s win is an important step for the team, “They had a really good push early on and they're a young team. They're a proud group of guys over on the other side,” Gruden said on the Griffins. “Thought we weathered that alright. And then I thought we handled the next 15 minutes – actually thought we played really well. Again, it's just a building block for us to understand what we need to do to win hockey games. Move forward from that.”

Ryan Tverberg returned from injury on Sunday and picked up an assist on Holmberg’s goal. Tverberg said it was nice to be back on the ice again, "Yeah, it was good just shake the dust off and just get back into it,” Tverberg said. “Get up to game speed.Just be back with the fellas in the game.”

The Marlies will be back in action on Friday in Providence when they visit the Bruins. Puck drop is at 7:05pm on AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY

Grand Rapids:  J. L’Esperance (6) PP (S. Edvinsson, B. Rafferty)
Goaltender: S. Cossa (22/25) L

Toronto: T. Niemelä (3) (N. Abruzzese, A. Steeves), N. Abruzzese (4) (L. Shaw, A. Steeves), P. Holmberg (6) (R. Tverberg, W. Villeneuve)
Goaltender: D. Hildeby (20/21) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Topi Niemelä opened the scoring at 10:21 of the first period. He has 13 points (3 goals, 10 assists) in 19 games this season.
• Nick Abruzzese scored on the power play at 11:07 of the second period and earlier recorded the primary assist on Niemelä’s first period goal. He has 16 points (4 goals, 12 assists) in 21 games this season.
• Pontus Holmberg scored at 9:56 of the third period. He has nine points (6 goals, 4 assists) in 11 games with the Marlies this season.
• Alex Steeves had the secondary assists on Niemelä’s first period goal and Abruzzese’s second period power play goal. He extended his AHL leading point streak to 13 games (11-7-18).
• Logan Shaw picked up the primary assist on Abruzzese’s second period power play goal. He has points (1-3-4) in three consecutive games. Shaw has 15 points (5 goals, 9 assists) in 18 games this season.
• Ryan Tverberg recorded the primary assist on Holmberg’s third period goal. This was his first game returning from injury since Oct. 24. He has five points (1 goal, 4 assists) in six games this season.
• William Villeneuve registered the secondary assist on Holmberg’s third period goal. He has eight points (1 goal, 7 assists) in 18 games this season.
• Dennis Hildeby stopped 20 of 21 shots he faced. He is 5-3-2 this season with a 1.80 goals against average and a 0.927 save percentage.

TEAM NOTES

• Alex Steeves’ point streak extended to 13 games with his first period assist. His point streak is now tied for the longest in Marlies franchise history. Spencer Abbots recorded points (1-18-19) in 13 games in the 2013-14 season.
• The Marlies went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 1-for-2 on the power play. Toronto is 4-2-2-1 when scoring on the power play and 6-4-3-0 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto had a 25-21 edge in shots in all situations. Topi Niemelä led the Marlies with four shots on goal. Toronto is 8-5-2-1 when outshooting their opponent.
• The Marlies are 6-2-0-0 against Central Division opponents and finish their regular season series 4-0-0-0 against the Griffins this season. Toronto outscored Grand Rapids 19-8. Dennis Hildeby collected three wins with Keith Petruzzellipicking up a win on the road. Nick Abruzzese led all Marlies in points (2-6-8).

RECORD WHEN

Scoring first                                        10-0-3-1
Leading after 1^st                                  9-1-1-0
Leading after 2^nd                                  8-1-2-0
At home                                              6-4-2-0
December                                            2-2-0-0
Sunday                                                3-1-1-0

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               11 (A. Steeves)
Assists            12 (N. Abruzzese)        
Points              20 (A. Steeves)
PPG                 3 (D. Ovchinnikov)
Shots               55 (L. Shaw)
+/-                    +11 (J. Blandisi)
PIMS                42 (K. Clifford)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On today’s game:

(Grand Rapids) had a really good push early on and they're a young team. They're a proud group of guys over on the other side. Thought we weathered that alright. And then I thought we handled the next 15 minutes, actually thought we played really well. Again, it's just a building block for us to understand what we need to do to win hockey games. Move forward from that.

On Mikko Kokkonen:

Him and Topi have really grown a lot … just for maturity and their trust. You can put them out on the ice in almost all situations. That's definitely a luxury on our part. Really nice to see these guys getting those minutes that they might not get if we didn't have all those call-ups. So, he’s really coming along nicely. Hopefully just continues to get better and better.

RYAN TVERBERG (1 ASSIST, FIRST GAME SINCE OCT. 24)

On how he felt coming off injury:

It was good just shake the dust off and just get back into it, get up to game speed. Just be back with the fellas in the game.

On playing with Pontus Holmberg:

He definitely just brings hard, hard work, good skill, great stick. Playing on his line, very smart guy. I always know where he's going to be. Very predictable. That's what you want out of a linemate.

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

December 15 at Providence – 7:00 p.m.
December 17 at Hartford – 3:00 p.m.
December 20 vs. Providence – 7:00 p.m.
December 22 at Belleville – 7:00 p.m.
December 26 vs. Belleville – 2:00 p.m. (ScotiaBank Arena)