The Toronto Marlies returned to the friendly confines of the Ricoh Coliseum after an eight game road swing and celebrated with a 6-1 victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs Saturday afternoon.
Keith Aucoin scored twice, with singles from Leo Komarov, Mark Fraser, Nicolas Deschamps and Mike Kostka for Toronto, has won five of the last six games and improved to 8-5-0-1 with the victory.
Aaron Palushaj scored the lone Hamilton goal.
Nazem Kadri, who was benched midway through the long road trip for ineffective play, registered four assists. Ben Scrivens had 16 saves for fourth win of the season.
As they did last night in Hamilton, the Marlies scored first as Nazem Kadri’s shot on the power play was deflected by Komarov, who was standing in front of Bulldogs goalie Robert Mayer. Just over eight minutes later, Toronto increased their lead as team captain Ryan Hamilton dug the puck out of the corner and centered it to a trailing Mark Fraser, who roofed it past Mayer for his first of the season. Thirteen seconds later, the Marlies made it 3-0 as Deschamps snapped a one-timer by Hamilton’s stunned netminder.
Toronto tallied again with just 28 seconds remaining in the first, as Keith Aucoin’s centering pass deflected off of a Hamilton defender’s skate in between Mayer’s pads.
The Marlies continued to dominate play in the middle frame, outshooting Hamilton 7 -5 and increasing their lead to 5-0 with Aucoin’s second of the game and third of the season, but the game started to get ugly near the end of the period, as a Kenny Ryan check of the Bulldogs Zack Stortini resulted in the former Edmonton Oilers tough guy pummeling the Toronto forward with several shots to the back and head while prone on the ice. The result was a minor for instigating, a major for fighting and two misconducts.
The two clubs traded goals early in the third, as Aaron Palushaj scored shorthanded to break Scrivens shutout bid and Mike Kostka scoring the third power play goal of the game, but the emotions started to get heated as Hamilton’s Brendan Gallagher set up camp in Scrivens crease and tussled with the Marlies goalie, while Joe Colborne fought with Gabriel Dumont.
With the victory, Toronto now leads the season series against Hamilton 3-2. They face the Abbotsford Heat tomorrow afternoon in their third game in three days.
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