Marlies Edged in Shootout

March 29, 2009
Marlies Crunched By Syracuse In ShootoutMarlies now tied with Syracuse for Final Playoff Spot

(TORONTO) – The Toronto Marlies fell to the Syracuse Crunch 4-3 in a shootout on Sunday afternoon in front of 5,925 fans at Ricoh Coliseum. Tim Stapleton had two points, but was unable to add to his league leading shootout goal total.

Nikita Filatov took advantage of an early power play opportunity, netting his 15th of the season past Adam Munro. Filatov’s marker came only 58 seconds into the game.

Tim Stapleton responded one minute later on a breakaway, roofing a wrist shot over the shoulder of Kevin Lalande. Jeremy Williams and Bates Battaglia each collected assists on the play.

Williams made it 2-1 on a Marlies power play two minutes later.

Filatov scored his second goal of the game on a 5-on-3 advantage at the 13:44 mark of the first frame.
Marlies captain Ben Ondrus scored on a penalty shot to put Toronto back in front 3-2. Ondrus came in and fired a snap shot past Lalande for his 10th goal of the season.

Michael Blunden snuck in behind the Marlies defence on a power play opportunity and buried his 11th goal of the season to tie the game 3-3. Blunden’s first shot was saved by Munro but he gathered his rebound and shot it past the Marlies goalie.

Both Munro and Lalande were sharp in the third frame turning aside 10 and 13 shots a piece, forcing the game into overtime. After a scoreless five minutes the game went to a shootout where Mayorov and Filatov each scored for Syracuse to secure the victory.

Marlies goaltender Adam Munro made 34 saves in the loss.

The Marlies and Crunch are now tied for the final playoff spot in the North Division.
The Marlies travel to Winnipeg to take on the Manitoba Moose next weekend on Friday and Saturday night at the MTS Centre. The Marlies next home game is on Wednesday, April 8 against the Rochester Americans.

ICE CHIPS: Adam Munro has won six of his past eight starts…Earlier in the day, Justin Pogge and Phil Oreskovic were reassigned to the Marlies…Entering today’s game, in the season series between the Crunch and Marlies, the team that’s scored the first goal has won each game…The Toronto Maple Leafs signed former Marlie Jay Harrison to an NHL contract on Friday…Former Marlie Bryan Muir was in attendance at the game today…The Marlies debuted their new scoreboard at the game…Jeremy Williams was named the games first star for the seventh time this season.

SCORING SUMMARY
First Period
1. SYR N. Filatov (15) (MacDonald, Blunden) 0:57 PP
1. TOR T. Stapleton (24) (Battaglia, Williams) 1:49
2. TOR J. Williams (26) (Stapleton, Boyce) 3:28 PP
2. SYR N. Filatov 2 (16) (MacKenzie, York) 6:16 PP

Second Period
3. TOR B. Ondrus (10) (penalty shot) 3:28
3. SYR M. Blunden (11) (Clitsome, Lalande) 6:25

Third Period
NO SCORING

Overtime
No Scoring

Shootout
4. SYR M. Mayorov (SOW)

Shots
TOR SYR
32 37

THREE STARS
1. TOR: Jeremy Williams
2. TOR: Adam Munro
3. SYR: Nikita Filatov

SOURCE: torontomarlies.com