Game Recap

The Toronto Marlies picked up their third victory over the Belleville Senators in just seven days Friday night, skating to a 3-1 win in their inaugural trip to Yardmen Arena.

In front of a sold out crowd that featured a large contingent of Marlies fans, the two teams battled in a gritty, physical contest that resulted in a combined 23 penalties called.

Dmytro Timashov opened the scoring for the Marlies less than eight minutes into the game. Timashov took advantage of a poor line change by the Senators, breaking in alone and beating goaltender Danny Taylor. Chris Mueller and Andreas Johnsson each had assists on the goal, which was Timashov’s sixth this season.

The Senators responded midway through the second as Francis Perron was able to beat Calvin Pickard to even things up. That would prove to be Belleville’s only goal as Pickard turned in another outstanding performance between the pipes, going on to stop 24 shots in the game.

With under five minutes to go in the middle period, Timashov buried his second of the game as he again took advantage of a bad change and broke in alone to beat Taylor. Colin Greening and Justin Holl had the assists.

Just over three minutes later, with the Marlies on a power play, Kerby Rychel deflected a point shot from Calle Rosen to extend the lead to two. Mueller picked up his second assist of the night on the goal.

The two teams played a scoreless third period as the Marlies finished with a 3-1 win on the road.

Pickard earned his sixth win this season and improved his save percentage (SV%) to .933 and goals against average (GAA) to 1.90 in eight games.

For Belleville, Taylor made 20 saves in a losing effort.

With the victory, the Marlies improve to 17-5-0-0 on the season and have a 10-2-0-0 record playing away from home. They also hold a 12-2-0-0 record against North Division opponents.

The Marlies league-leading penalty kill unit turned in a stellar performance in the game, successfully killing off seven shorthanded instances throughout the game. It’s the fourteenth game this season where the Marlies have not allowed a power play goal.

The Senators fall to 10-11-0-2 with the loss.

The Marlies will now head back to Toronto as they hit the ice again tomorrow evening for a 4:00 matchup with the Hartford Wolf Pack at Ricoh Coliseum. Tickets are still available.

Game Notes

GAME SUMMARY GAME SHEET

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: D. Timashov (6) (C. Mueller, A. Johnsson), D. Timashov (7) (C. Greening, J. Holl), K. Rychel (5) PP (C. Rosen, C. Mueller)

Goaltender: C. Pickard (24/25)

Belleville: F. Perron (3) (J. O’Brien, G. Gagne)

Goaltender: T. Danny (20/23)

FROM THE SCORESHEET

Dmytro Timashov opened the scoring at 7:54 of the first period and later scored his second of the night at 15:06 of the second period. Timashov has 14 points (7 goals, 7 assists) this season.

Kerby Rychel scored the Marlies third of the night on the powerplay at 18:24 of the second period. Rychel has five points (2 goals, 3 assists) in his last four games.

Chris Mueller registered the primary assist on Timashov’s first period goal and the secondary assist on Rychel’s power play goal. Mueller has six points (2 goals, 4 assists) in his last five games.

Andreas Johnsson had the secondary assist on Timashov’s first period goal. Johnsson has 18 points (9 goals, 9 assists) this season.

Colin Greening recorded the primary assist on Timashov’s second period goal.

Justin Holl added the secondary assist on Timashov’s second goal of the night.

Calle Rosen registered the primary assist on Rychel’s third period goal for his eighth assist of the season.

Calvin Pickard stopped 24 of 25 shots. Pickard is now 6-2-0-0 on the season with a .933 Save Percentage and a 1.90 Goals Against Average.

NOTABLES

Toronto went 7-for-7 on the penalty kill and 1-for-7 on the power play.

Belleville had a 25-23 edge in shots in all situations.

Miro Aaltonen and Calle Rosen led the Marlies with four shots on goal.

The Marlies are 12-2-0-0 against North Division opponents this season.

TEAM LEADERS

Goals: A. Johnsson (9), B. Smith (9)

Assists: C. Mueller (12)

Points: A. Johnsson (18)

PPG: A. Johnsson (4)

Shots: K. Rychel (50)

+/-: M. Marincin (+12)

PIMS: A. Nielsen (54)

POSTGAME QUOTES

On tonight’s game:

It was a strange game, a lot of penalties both ways. We didn’t like our second period at all, even in the first period, I thought we were a little slow in that period. And then in the second period, they outplayed us but we were opportunistic to build ourselves a lead. I liked our third. I didn’t like that way we started on the power play but after that I didn’t think we gave up a whole lot and then we just found our way out of the game. It was a strange game for sure. It was one we’ll have to watch back to really get a handle on what really happened in the game but we’re just going to move on here to the weekend and get ready for Hartford tomorrow.

On Belleville pushing the physical aspect of the game:

Well a little bit. That’s the way that they play. They play physical, they play hard, they lead the league in penalty minutes. It one of those kinds of games, it’s where they want it to go. We don’t want to back down from that. We want to be competitive and be on our toes and on the attack. At the same time, we’ve got to not lose our identity and what we are and get sucked into all of that. I don’t know if that was much of a factor in the game. It was just a strange game. Like I said, we’ll have some time to figure out what happened here today but we’re just going to move on and prepare for Hartford.

– Head coach Sheldon Keefe

NEXT GAME:

December 2 vs Hartford – 4:00 p.m. ET

December 8 at Laval – 7:30 p.m. ET

December 9 at Laval – 3:00 p.m. ET

December 15 at Rochester – 7:05 p.m. ET

December 16 vs Manitoba – 7:00 p.m. ET

Game Preview

The Toronto Marlies will make their first ever road trip to Belleville for a Battle of Ontario matchup against the Senators at the recently renovated Yardmen Arena.

It’s the third time in a week that the Marlies and Senators will face each other with the Marlies taking the first two games last weekend.

The Marlies (16-5-0-0) will look to get back on track tonight after losing to the Syracuse Crunch 3-1 on Wednesday. Prior to that game, the Marlies had won seven straight, all of which were against North Division opponents.

After dropping two to the Marlies last weekend, the Senators (10-10-0-2) responded with an overtime win against Laval on Wednesday.

Kerby Rychel had a standout performance in last weekend’s games against the Senators, recording a goal and three assists in the two-game set against Belleville. Andreas Johnsson additionally had a pair of goals while Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and an assist.

The Marlies are currently 11-2-0-0 against divisional opponents and 9-2-0-0 on the road so far this season.

Entering Friday’s contest, the Marlies have scored a power play goal in four straight games. They have increased their power play percentage to 15.3% this season and will put that to the test against Belleville’s penalty kill, which has been successful a division-worst 78.8% of the time.

Puck drop for tonight’s game is scheduled for 7:00 and fans can tune in on AHL Live or listen in with Todd Crocker online through Marlies Radio.

Follow us on Twitter for pre- and post-game coverage, as well as live updates from Yardmen Arena for tonight’s game.

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