Marlies Take Down Monsters, 5-2
December 21, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany Devils News Release
Toronto - John Pohl scored twice and Bates Battaglia notched three assists to lead the Toronto Marlies (17-14-0-0) to their fifth straight win, 5-2 over the Lowell Lock Monsters (12-16-1-3) at the Ricoh Coliseum on Wednesday night. Toronto scored three times on the power play.
The Monsters got off to a strong start, spending their first three shifts almost entirely in the Marlies zone, but a Lowell penalty sparked Toronto to life. Just 3:06 into the game, Jeremy Williams blasted a one-timer by G Tom Lawson from the left circle to make it 1-0. Despite being shorthanded four times in the period, Lowell still outshot the Marlies 12-9. Toronto held on to the lead heading into the dressing room after 20 minutes.
Penalties continued to wreak havoc on the Lock Monsters in the second. At 2:02 Toronto turned their fifth power play of the game into their second tally. David Gove marked his return to the Lock Monsters lineup after missing the last seven games with an injury, by putting Lowell on the board just past the halfway point of the stanza. He took a feed from Keith Aucoin and buried it on a sharp angle along the goal line for his eighth of the season. Aucoin picked up his 19th power play point of the campaign on the goal, giving him more than twice as many as the next closest Monsters teammate. Lowell barely missed on a brilliant chance to tie it before the end of the period, and it came back to haunt them. Dan DaSilva's one-timer from between the circles with three minutes remaining hit flush off the crossbar and settled underneath G Jean-Sebastien Aubin. Less than two minutes later the Marlies regained the two-goal lead. Leading scorer John Pohl, who returned earlier in the day from the parent Maple Leafs, picked up his 18th lamplighter of the season and it was 3-1 after 40 minutes. The second period saw three goals scored despite only 11 combined shots.
Lowell battled to get back into the game in the third, taking eight of the first 10 shots of the frame and keeping Toronto hemmed in their own zone for much of the period. After a Lock Monsters power play in the final five minutes of the game, Toronto added their fourth of the game. Pohl had a partial breakaway in on Lawson and beat him with a low wrist shot for his second of the night. Ryan Steeves kept the Monsters hopes alive with his third of the season just 18 seconds later to make it 4-2. But Lowell took consecutive penalties in the final minutes to hinder their own chances at a late comeback, and surrendered the Marlies third power play goal of the night en route to taking a 5-2 defeat. Lowell has dropped their last five games.
Monsters Memos: D Danny Richmond was returned on loan from the Carolina Hurricanes earlier in the day. He was recalled for the second time this season yesterday but did not play last night against Tampa Bay... The Monsters and Hurricanes played goalie swap as well, as Cam Ward was recalled to Carolina and they returned Kevin Nastiuk to Lowell... The Lock Monsters have surrendered seven or more power plays in each of their last five games.
The Lock Monsters head to Binghamton on Friday and Providence on Monday before returning home next week. The Providence Bruins come to town for a 7:05 match on Wednesday, December 28th at Tsongas Arena. That night, the first 1,500 kids 12 and under will get a free Lock Monsters Scarf, courtesy of MassBank. It's the only home game for Lowell in a stretch of the next eight games until the middle of January.
Individual tickets are on sale now at the Tsongas Arena box office, which is open from 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:00 - 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Flex Packs and Holiday Hat Trick packages make great gifts for the holidays, and are on sale now for all those last-minute holiday shoppers. Contact the Lock Monsters ticket office at (978) 458-PUCK (7825) for tickets or more information.
All games home and away can be heard live on 980 WCAP, and viewed through B2 Networks, the official broadband provider of the AHL, with the "Voice of the Lock Monsters" Ryan Johnston. Log on to www.lockmonsters.com to watch or listen online.
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