Toronto Marlies Fall To Cleveland Monsters In First Half Of Back-To-Back

The Toronto Marlies lost 3-2 in overtime to the Cleveland Monsters on Friday night. Cleveland now leads the season series 2-1.

In the first period, the visitors got on the board just before the buzzer with a shorthanded goal from Joona Luoto with 13 seconds remaining to give them a 1-0 lead.

In the middle frame, Kyle Clifford tied the game at one with a power-play goal at 6:46. Later, Max Ellis gave Toronto their first lead of the game with his 10th of the season at 11:49. But, the Monsters were able to tie the game at two before the period was over, thanks to a goal from Tyler Angle.

In the third, both teams exchanged chances, but neither were able to capitalize so an extra frame was needed.

In overtime, it was Trey Fix-Wolansky who scored the game winner for the Monsters. The two teams will meet again on Saturday as they head to Toronto to complete the home-and-home series. Puck drop is at 4:00pm on AHLTV, the Toronto Maple Leafs App and NHL Network.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: K. Clifford (7) PP (N. Hoefenmayer, A. Steeves), M. Ellis (10) (A. Steeves, J. Benn)
Goaltender: K. Petruzzelli (31/34) OT/L

Cleveland: J. Luoto (13) SH (R. Ahcan), T. Angle (9) (R. Ahcan), T. Fix-Wolansky (26) (J. Christiansen, C. Sillinger)
Goaltender: D. Tarasov (37/39) W

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ON THE SCORESHEET

• Kyle Clifford put the Marlies on the board at 11:49 of the second period.
• Max Ellis scored at 11:49 of the second period. He has 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 47 games this season.
• Noel Hoefenmayer recorded the primary assist on Clifford’s second period goal. This was his 11^th power play assist.
• Alex Steeves had the secondary assist on Clifford’s goal and the primary assist on Ellis’ goal, both in the second period. This was his 10^th multipoint game of the season. He has 47 points (17 goals, 30 assists) in 56 games with the Marlies.
• Jordie Benn picked up the secondary assist on Ellis’ second period goal. He has four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in 14 games with the Marlies.
• Keith Petruzzelli stopped 31 of 34 shots he faced.

TEAM NOTES

• Toronto is 4-3 in overtime this season.
• The Marlies were awarded a penalty shot 3:44 of overtime. Alex Steeves was stopped by Cleveland on his first penalty shot this season. This was Toronto’s sixth penalty shot of the season (0/6) which sets the franchise record for number of penalty shots in one season.
• Toronto has allowed only three shorthanded goals this season which is tied for second least in the AHL
• The Marlies went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play. Toronto 28-8-3-2 when scoring on the power play and 19-5-1-2 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Toronto had a 39-34 edge in shots in all situations. Alex Steeves led the Marlies with seven shots on goal. Toronto is 19-7-1-1 when outshooting their opponent.
• The Marlies are 25-9-1-1 against North Division opponents and are 1-1-1-0 against the Monsters.

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POSTGAME QUOTES

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HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On tonight’s game:
These last two games that we’ve played were much more consistent in executing our plan, our effort, playing as a team. This one stings a little bit. We really want to get back into the win column. When we’re evaluating ourselves on our process and how we’re approaching the game, there’s a lot of positives to take from it but right now, we really wanted that one.

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On Keith Petruzzelli:
He did really well. He hasn’t had consistent starts with us throughout the season and it’s been a tough year to find flow for him but because of his personality and how he works at things, he’s the right type of guy to come into games like this … He a really good job coming in. He made some big saves for us at key moments. You can’t say enough about how hard he competes and how he plays.

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UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

March 25 vs. Cleveland – 4:00 p.m.
March 29 vs. Hershey – 11:00 a.m.
April 1 at Belleville – 7:05 p.m.
April 2 vs. Belleville – 4:00 p.m.
April 5 at Hartford – 7:00 p.m.