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AHL Cleveland Monsters

Monsters Fall in Toronto, 5-2

March 2, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Monsters News Release


Despite erasing a two-goal deficit in the second period, the Lake Erie Monsters (23-26-0-6) fell by a 5-2 score to the North Division leading Toronto Marlies (33-18-2-2) Sunday afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto. Joey Hishon and Mike Sgarbossa scored for the Monsters, who had a string of six straight games decided by a single goal snapped in the loss in Toronto. The Monsters have points in the standings in five of their last seven games, and head home to take on Toronto Friday at 7:30 PM at Quicken Loans Arena.

Toronto opened the scoring 53 seconds into the game when Carter Ashton took a pass and sent a puck low to beat Calvin Pickard from the left circle off the rush; the goal gave the Marlies a 1-0 lead.

Ashton scored the second period's first goal, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead on a tip-in off of a point shot at 10:02 of the second period, but the Monsters would stage a comeback in the middle frame.

Karl Stollery's shot from the center of the blue line was tipped in by Joey Hishon to cut the deficit in half for the Monsters at 10:54 of the second period. The goal was the ninth of the season for Hishon, and was also assisted by Matt Hunwick. Before the period came to a close, Mike Sgarbossa scored on the power play from the slot, his third goal of the season, to tie the game at 2-2 at 18:35 of the second period. Colin Smith earned an assist by setting up Sgarbossa in the offensive end, and Pickard was credited with an assist as he initially cleared the puck to Smith in the neutral zone.

In the third period, Ashton banged in a rebound for Toronto at at 6:16 to complete his hat trick, making the score 3-2. At 6:51 of the third, T.J. Brennan scored on a shot from the right point to give Toronto a 4-2 lead. Brandon Kozun added an empty-net goal late in the game to seal the 5-2 win for Toronto.

Pickard took the loss in net, stopping 23 of 27 shots. He is 13-15-3 on the season for the Monsters. Drew MacIntyre earned the victory in net for Toronto, steering aside 21 of 23 Monsters shots; he is 25-14-2 on the campaign.

The Monsters are back on the ice at Quicken Loans Arena Friday at 7:30 PM against Toronto.

NOTES: The Monsters are 2-2-0-1 against Toronto this season, and 11-10-0-5 against the North Division... The Monsters are 0-1-0-0 in March... The Monsters were 1-6 on the power play while Toronto was 0-3... Michael Schumacher's four-game point streak was snapped in the loss in Toronto... Stefan Elliott's two-game goal scoring streak was snapped in the loss in Toronto.

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