Toronto Marlies End Road Trip With Win Over Wilkes-Barres/Scranton Penguins

The Toronto Marlies ended their road trip with a 3-1 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Wednesday night. Toronto improves to 38-16-2-1 on the season and 20-8-2-0 when playing on the road.  

In the first, both teams exchanged chances, but neither were able to convert.  

Early in the second, it was the home team who struck first. Lukas Svejkovsky scored at 3:26 in the frame to give Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the 1-0 lead. Shortly after, Toronto responded with a goal by Jordie Benn at 6:44 to tie the game at one a piece heading into the third.  

Halfway in the final frame, Toronto took the lead with a goal by Joseph Blandisi at 11:33 to make it 2-1. Blandisi currently has points (2-2-4) in four consecutive games. Later, Kyle Clifford added another for Toronto with an empty net goal at 18:11 to secure the win.  

Joseph Woll stood tall in the Marlies crease stopping 31 of the 32 shots he faced.  

Toronto returns to action on March 11th when they host the Hartford Wolf Pack. Puck drop is at 5:00pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs app and AHLTV.

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: J. Benn (2) (P. Holmberg, A. Steeves), J. Blandisi (12) (M. Johnstone, T. Miller), K. Clifford (5) EN (Unassisted)
Goaltender: J. Woll (31/32) W

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton: L. Svejkovsky (3) PP (M. Reinke, T. Sikura)
Goaltender: D. Tokarski (22/24) L

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ON THE SCORESHEET

• Jordie Benn put the Marlies on the board at 6:44 of the second period. He has three points (2 goals, 1 assists) in eight games this season.
• Joseph Blandisi scored the game-winning goal at 11:33 of the third period. He has points (2-2-4) in four consecutive games. This was his 12^th goal of the season, matching a career high in a season with a single team.
• Kyle Clifford scored on the empty net at 18:11 of the third period.
• Pontus Holmberg recorded the primary assist on Benn’s second period goal. He has points (3-1-4) in four consecutive games. Holmberg has 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 23 games with the Marlies.
• Alex Steeves had the secondary assist on Benn’s second period goal. He has 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists) in 54 games with the Marlies.
• Marc Johnstone registered the primary assist on Blandisi’s third period goal. He has 19 points (8 goals, 11 assists) in 54 games with the Marlies.
• Tommy Miller picked up the secondary assist on Blandisi’s third period goal. He has five assists through 32 games this season.
• Joseph Woll stopped 31 of 32 shots he faced. He is 15-1-0 this season with a 2.24 goals against average and 0.933 save percentage. This was his third consecutive win with the Marlies and has only allowed one goal in each game.

TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies went 3-for-4 on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play. Toronto is 11-8-0-0 when not scoring on the power play and 21-11-2-0 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had a 32-25 edge in shots in all situations. Noel Hoefenmayer led the Marlies with five shots on goal. Toronto is 17-9-2-1 when outshot by their opponent.
• The Marlies are 4-2-1-0 against Atlantic Division opponents and finish their regular season series 2-0-0-0 against the Penguins.

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POSTGAME QUOTES

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HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On the team’s response to consecutive road losses:
Just how much they care about responding to losses and knowing that we have a better game in front of us that we can play and just having a high standard of what our expectations are, not letting things leak too long and always having a response. Today was a really strong way to finish what felt like a long road trip even though it was three games and as the game went on I feel like we got stronger.

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On the third period:

Most important thing was we didn’t spend a ton of time in our D-zone. We had a pushback, we were able to get through the middle of the rink. We talked about before the third period the importance of just a long road trip and finding a greasy goal and knowing we had to get to the hard areas to find it. They were defending really well and it was tough to get inside. Clifford did an amazing job of getting the puck off the wall in the offensive zone and making a play to the top and Miller throws it down to Johnstone from behind the net and just shoves it out front to Blandisi who gets the greasy goal, gets his nose into the paint and it was just a really good job by those guys, knowing what it was going to take to find a win today.

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JOSEPH BLANDISI (GAME-WINNING GOAL)

On tonight’s game:

I think it took us 10 minutes to find our legs there in the first period but we had Joe Woll in net so, he always has our back. Definitely after that I think in the final 50 minutes of the game, we found our legs, found our work ethic, we were louder on the bench so, we more found our game.

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On the team culture:
There’s a family in that dressing room. We all bleed for one another. We all want to win together. We’re dying for the guy next to us. When you have that bond over a team of 25 guys, you’re definitely bound to get some special responses.

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UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

March 11 vs. Hartford – 5:00 p.m.
March 12 at Rochester – 3:05 p.m.
March 17 vs. Charlotte – 1:30 p.m.
March 18 vs. Charlotte – 4:00 p.m.
March 22 vs. Milwaukee – 7:00 p.m.