Toronto Marlies Top Providence Bruins

The Toronto Marlies defeated the Providence Bruins 8-2 on Friday night. This was Toronto's first eight goal game of the season.

In the first period, the home team struck first thanks to a goal from Jayson Megna at 13:55. But, Toronto responded with a goal from Dylan Gambrell less than three minutes later. Logan Shaw added a shorthanded goal before the period was over to give the Marlies a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.

In the second, the Marlies kept coming. Logan Shaw and Dylan Gambrell both scored their second of the game on the power play, and Mikko Kokkonen and Kieffer Bellows also found the back of the net before the middle frame was over.

In the third, Matteo Pietroniro scored his first goal of the season just 1:16 in to the frame. Topi Niemelä scored his fourth goal just over halfway through the period, and Providence scored another goal at 14:32.

Dennis Hildeby picked up his sixth victory of the season, stopping 32 of the 34 shots he faced.

With the primary assist on Dylan Gambrell's first period goal, Alex Steeves extended his point streak to 14 games, which sets a new franchise record.

The Marlies had a number of players record multi-point games on Friday night. Dylan Gambrell tallied four points (2G, 2A), Alex Steeves (2A), Logan Shaw (2G), Joseph Blandisi (2A), Mikko Kokkonen (2A), and Kieffer Bellows (1G, 1A) all recorded two points.

The Marlies return to action on Sunday afternoon when they visit the Hartford Wolf Pack. Puck drop is at 3:00pm on AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto:  D. Gambrell (3) (A. Steeves, N. Abruzzese), L. Shaw (7) SH (J. Blandisi), L. Shaw (8) PP (N. Abruzzese, D. Gambrell), M. Kokkonen (3) (K. Bellows), K. Bellows (7) (R. Tverberg, M. Kokkonen), D. Gambrell (4) PP (A. Steeves, J. Blandisi), M. Pietroniro (1) (D. Gambrell, C. Gaunce), T. Niemelä (4) (R. Mastrosimone, T. Miller)Goaltender: D. Hildeby (32/34) W

Providence: J. Megna (6) (F. Lysell, L. Toporowski), G. Merkulov (10) PP (R. Walsh, J. Farinacci)Goaltender: M. DiPietro (9/12) L, B. Bussi (12/17)

ON THE SCORESHEET

Dylan Gambrell put the Marlies on the board at 16:06 of the first period and scored on the power play at 11:55 of the second period. He also added he secondary assist on Shaw’s second period power play goal and the primary assist on Pietroniro’s third period goal. This was his second career four-point game. He has 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) in 22 games this season.Logan Shaw scored shorthanded at 19:34 of the first period and on the power play at 4:07 of the second period. This was his ninth AHL career shorthanded goal. He has points (3-3-6) in four consecutive games. Shaw has 17 points (8 goals, 9 assists) in 19 games this season.Mikko Kokkonen scored at 5:55 of the second period and later added the secondary assist on Bellows’ second period goal. He has six points (3 goals, 3 assists) in 19 games this season.Kieffer Bellows scored at 8:34 of the second period and earlier registered the lone assist on Kokkonen’s second period goal. He has 14 points (7 goals, 7 assists) in 15 games with the Marlies this season.Matteo Pietroniro scored at 1:16 of the third period. This was his first goal of the season.Topi Niemelä scored at 10:40 of the third period. He has 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) in 20 games this season.Alex Steeves had the primary assists on Gambrell’s first period goal and second period goal. He extended his AHL leading point streak to 14 games (11-9-20). Steeves has 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 17 games this season with the Marlies.Nick Abruzzese recorded the secondary assist on Gambrell’s first period goal and the primary assist on Shaw’s second period goal. He has points (1-3-4) in consecutive games. Abruzzese has 18 points (4 goals, 14 assists) in 22 games this season.Joseph Blandisi picked up the lone assist on Shaw’s first period shorthanded goal and the secondary assist on Gambrell’s second period power play goal. He has 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists) in 21 games this season.Ryan Tverberg recorded the primary assist on Bellows’ second period goal. He has six points (1 goal, 5 assists) in seven games this season.Cameron Gaunce had the secondary assist on Pietroniro’s third period goal. This was his first point for the Marlies in his first game.Robert Mastrosimone recorded the primary assist on Niemelä’s third period goal. He has three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in 15 games this season.Tommy Miller picked up the secondary assist on Niemelä’s third period goal. He has five points (1 goal, 4 assists) in 20 games this season.Dennis Hildeby stopped 32 of 34 shots he faced. He is 6-3-2 this season with a 1.82 goals against average and a 0.929 save percentage.TEAM NOTES

Alex Steeves’ point streak extended to 14 games with his first period assist. He set a franchise record for consecutive games recording a point (11-8-19). The record was previously held by Spencer Abbot who recorded 19 points (1 goal, 18 assists) in 13 games in the 2013-14 season.Toronto last scored eight goals in a single game on March 6, 2022 against Cleveland (8-5 W).The Marlies went 3-for-4 on the penalty kill and 2-for-5 on the power play. This was the fourth game this season where Toronto recorded multiple power play goals. Toronto is 5-2-2-1 when scoring on the power play and 7-4-3-0 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.Providence had a 34-29 edge in shots in all situations. Logan Shaw led the Marlies with four shots on goal. Toronto is 3-2-1-0 when outshot by their opponent.The Marlies are 2-2-0-0 against Atlantic Division opponents and are 1-0-0-0 against the Bruins this season.RECORD WHEN

Not scoring first                                  1-7-0-0Leading after 1st                                  10-1-1-0Leading after 2nd                                  9-1-2-0
On the road                                        7-4-2-0December                                            3-2-0-0Friday                                                  2-2-1-1

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals               11 (A. Steeves)Assists            14 (N. Abruzzese)
Points              22 (A. Steeves)PPG                 3 (D. Ovchinnikov)Shots               59 (L. Shaw)+/-                    +12 (J. Blandisi)PIMS                46 (K. Clifford)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On tonight’s game:The nice thing is I think we just got better with every shift. Coming into a building like this, it’s not easy. They come hard, they’re a hard-working team, they’re detail oriented, they’re well coached. The guys came in understanding that and they stuck to a game plan. All four lines, all six D and the goaltending, I thought our guys were excellent, especially for being a road game.

On the team learning and maturing as the season progresses:I go back to the leadership we have with Blandisi, Shaw and Clifford. They set the tone. Especially our younger defencemen have really started to play extremely well and they’re getting some confidence and they’re understanding how to win, being consistent. It’s good to see. The tone is set with our leadership.

UPCOMING GAMES:*All times Eastern Standard Time

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)December 27 at Cleveland – 7:00 p.m.