The Toronto Marlies took down the Belleville Senators 3-2 on Wednesday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Toronto is now fourth in the North Division with a 24-18-9-2 record.
Nick Abruzzese opened the scoring with a breakaway goal 7minutes into the first period, giving the Marlies a quick 1-0 lead. Egor Sokolov tied the game for the Senators at 6:06 in the second period and Zach Ostapchuk added a second Senators goal just over four minutes later. Roni Hirvonen scored at 15:38 in the second, tying the game at two through 20minutes of play.
Zach Solow scored just over three minutes into the finalframe, securing the win for the Marlies.
Toronto killed off all five of the Senators power plays opportunities on Wednesday morning, including a 5-on-3 late in the third period.
“The special teams were huge for us today,” head coach John Gruden said after the game. “The momentum shifts but more importantly the blocked shots. And the ability to protect the front of the net so they don’t get those second opportunities and I thought we did a really good job of doing that today.”
Dennis Hildeby picked up his 14th win onWednesday, stopping 28 of 30 shots on goal and a Belleville shoot out attempt early in the third period.
“Yeah, again, I’m sure, he would have probably liked maybe the second one back, but, man, when he made that save on that penalty shot – it was huge,” Gruden said. “It gave our bench a tremendous amount of life. After he made that save, we killed that penalty off then we scored that big goal. And he shut the door. He was as good as I’ve seen him all season and man, we needed him to be.”
With two assists on Wednesday, Kyle Clifford has registered a point in three straight games. Clifford has posted six points over that span.
The Marlies are back in action on Friday in Utica. Puck drop is at 7:00pm on AHLTV.
