Toronto Marlies Fall To Laval Rocket In Last Regular Season Road Game

The Toronto Marlies fell 6-3 to the Laval Rocket on Wednesday night in the final regular season road game. Toronto falls to 21-11-4-0 when playing on the road.  

In the opening period, it was the home team who struck first. Anthony Richard scored at 3:46 in the frame to give the Rocket the early 1-0 lead. Just over a minute later, Semyon Der-Aguchintsev scored at 4:51 to tie things up at one. Later, Logan Shaw added another for Toronto at 16:21 to give the Marlies the 2-1 lead. Before the period was over, Anthony Richard scored at 18:20 to tie the game at two a piece.

Late in the second, Laval regained the lead with a goal by Mitchell Stephens at 18:30 to make it 3-2 heading into the third.  

In the final frame, Mitchell Stephens added another for Laval with a goal at 8:39 to extend their lead to two. Shortly after, Pontus Holmberg earned his tenth of the season with a goal at 9:51 to keep within one. Later, Laval added two more with a goal by Jesse Ylönen at 17:31 and an empty net goal by Anthony Richard at 19:27 to make it 6-3 and secure the win.  

The Marlies return to action on April 15th when they host the Belleville Senators in the first half of a back-to-back. Puck drop is at 4:00pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs app and AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: S. Der-Arguchintsev (11) (R. Zohorna, P. Holmberg), L. Shaw (21) (N. Abruzzese), P. Holmberg (10) (W. Villeneuve)
Goaltender: E. Källgren (23/28) L

Laval: A. Richard (27) (R. Harvey-Pinard), A. Richard (28) (R. Harvey-Pinard, T. Dello), M. Stephens (19) PP (R. Harvey-Pinard, J. Ylonen), M. Stephens (20) (A. Richard, R. Harvey-Pinard), J. Ylonen (11) PP (A. Richard, R. Harvey-Pinard), A. Richard (29) EN (Unassisted)
Goaltender: C. Primeau (39/42) W

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ON THE SCORESHEET

• Semyon Der-Arguchintsev put the Marlies on the board at 4:51 of the first period. He has 38 points (11 goals, 27 assists) in 48 games this season.
• Logan Shaw scored at 16:21 of the first period. This was Shaw’s 14^th point (6-8-14) this season against Laval through eight games. He has 66 points (21 goals, 45 assists) in 67 games this season.
• Pontus Holmberg scored at 9:51 of the third period and earlier had the secondary assist on Der-Arguchintsev’s first period goal. He has 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) in 36 games this season with the Marlies.
• Radim Zohorna recorded the primary assist on Der-Arguchintsev’s first period goal.
• Nick Abruzzese had the lone assist on Shaw’s first period goal. He is tied for third overall amongst rookies in assists (30).
• William Villeneuve picked up the lone assist on Holmberg’s third period goal. He has 22 points (3 goals, 19 assists0 in 53 games this season.
• Erik Källgren stopped 23 of 28 shots he faced.

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TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies went 2-for-4 on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play. Toronto is 12-15-1-0 when not scoring on the power play and 21-16-2-0 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto had a 42-29 edge in shots in all situations. Kyle Clifford led the Marlies with seven shots on goal. Toronto is 19-10-1-1 when outshooting their opponent.
• The Marlies are 26-13-1-1 against North Division opponents and finish their regular season series 6-2-0-0 against the Rocket. Toronto outscored Laval 33-29 through eight games.

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POSTGAME QUOTES

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HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On tonight’s game:
We know right now we need to be playing playoff hockey. Everyone in our division is so, they’re getting reps right now at what that is, what that feels like and the responsibility in game that every point matters and it matters to win. I thought our team came out today with the right mindset, we were playing the right way. We were in the game for great chunks of it. It was a weird game in the sense that we hit two posts, then we have a puck scraped off the goal line then a goal against that was clearly offside, there were just some interesting circumstances, and it could have been a really frustrated bench but guys stayed positive, pushing in the right direction. Second period, penalty troubles that really got us in a tougher place where we lost a lot of momentum for a stretch of time where prior to that we were in the game and felt like we were doing a lot of good things. In the third period, again ability to respond and answer. There was a lot of fight and pushback. At the end of the day, we still need to win. It’s not good enough. The frustration has piled up over this stretch of time. We do have to find little wins and little things that we’re doing well that we did well today to take from and push forward and not let the frustration linger too much or compound. We’ve just got to keep pushing.