Toronto Marlies Top Abbotsford Canucks In Second Half Of Back-To-Back

The Toronto Marlies defeated the Abbotsford Canucks 3-2 on Wednesday night. The two teams split the season series, with both teams taking home two wins each.

In the first period, it was the home team who got on the board first once again, thanks to a goal from Arshdeep Bains 8:09 into the opening frame. The Canucks would carry that lead into the second period.

In the middle frame, the Marlies offence came alive. Marlies leading scorer Adam Gaudette tallied his 18th of the season just 2:07 into the period to tie the game at one. Later, Marc Johnstone scored his third of the season to extend the Marlies lead to two.

In the final frame, Linus Karlsson scored on the power play to tie the game at two at 6:56. But, it was Johnstone who secured the win for Toronto, with his second goal of the game at 15:20.

Erik Källgren stopped 21 of the 23 shots he faced for his fourth consecutive win.

The Marlies continue their road trip as they head to Manitoba to face the Moose for two games. The first game is Friday at 8:00pm EST on AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: A. Gaudette (18) (K. Clifford), M. Johnstone (3) (K. Clifford, M. Rifai), M. Johnstone (4) (G. Slaggert, T. Miller)
Goaltender: E. Källgren (21/23) W

Abbotsford: A. Bains (6) (N. Juulsen, D. Klimovich), L. Karlsson (13) PP (J. Dowling, C. Wolanin)
Goaltender: A. Silovs (29/32) L

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ON THE SCORESHEET

• Adam Gaudette put the Marlies on the board at 2:07 of the second period. He has 28 points (18 goals, 10 assists) in 32 games this season.
• Marc Johnstone scored at 6:33 of the second period and the game-winning goal at 15:20 of the third period. He has 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists) in 38 games this season. Toronto is 2-0-0 when Johnstone records two or more goals.
• Kyle Clifford had the lone assist on Gaudette’s goal and the primary assist on Johnstone’s goal, both in the second period.
• Marshall Rifai recorded the secondary assist on Johnstone’s second period goal. He has 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) in 40 games this season.
• Graham Slaggert registered the primary assist on Johnstone’s third period goal. He has seven points (5 goals, 2 assists) in 35 games this season.
• Tommy Miller picked up the secondary assist on Johnstone’s third period goal. This was Miller’s fourth assist through 16 games with the Marlies.
• Erik Källgren stopped 21 of 23 shots he faced. This was his fourth consecutive win. He is 5-3-1-0 this season with a 3.30 goals against average and a 0.874 save percentage.

TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies went 3-for-4 on the penalty kill and 0-for-5 on the power play. Toronto is 6-6-0-0 when not scoring on the power play and 15-4-1-0 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto had a 32-23 edge in shots in all situations. Noel Hoefenmayer led the Marlies with five shots on goal. Toronto is 13-5-0-0 when outshooting their opponent.
• The Marlies finished their regular season series 2-2-0-0 against the Abbotsford Canucks. Toronto and Abbotsford both scored 11 goals through four games.
• Toronto is on their annual Boat Show Road Trip which includes eight games from Jan. 14 to Jan. 29. Toronto is 5-1-0 and have outscored their opponents 24-22.

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POSTGAME QUOTES

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HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On tonight’s game:
It’s a long trip and they’re a great hockey team, one of the better teams we’ve seen all season. They’ve played us really hard back at home. They were flying yesterday. To come out today and have a little bit more control with how we were approaching our tactics against them, I thought it was a great response and adjustments by our group.

On Erik Källgren:

You could tell there was a more confident Erik Källgren in net today. Just his movement and his presence. He made some big saves towards the end there, kicked out two in the third to keep us alive. You need that to help teams win games and he gave us that.

GRAHAM SLAGGERT (1 ASSIST)

On Marc Johnstone:
He’s an absolute warrior. He always puts the team first. We knew he was going to have a big impact. He went back to his college days with the bubble on. He was awesome out there. He did every little thing right, working as hard as he could and it obviously paid off tonight.

On tonight’s game:
Yesterday wasn’t what we wanted but today we came back and really drove the pace of play. Did a lot of good things by getting the pucks in deep, getting pucks behind the D and force them to go back towards their net.

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

January 27 at Manitoba – 7:00 p.m. (CST)
January 29 at Manitoba – 2:00 p.m. (CST)
February 3 vs. Laval – 7:00 p.m.
February 4 vs. Laval – 4:00 p.m.
February 10 at Charlotte – 7:00 p.m.