The Toronto Marlies completed their eight game road trip with a 6-3 loss to the Hamilton Bulldogs Friday night at Copps Coliseum. The three week sojourn started with a 5-4 victory on October 26th and took the Blue and White to British Columbia,Texas and Oklahoma, before returning to the province of Ontario.
Matt Frattin scored twice in his season debut along with Jerry D’Amigo's second goal of the season. Brendan Gallagher scored two goals, along with singles from Morgan Ellis, Alexander Avtsin, Joonas Nattinen and Aaron Palushaj for the hometown Bulldogs, who evened their record to 5-5-1-1.
Ben Scrivens made 23 saves in the loss, lowering his record to 3-4-0-0.
With the loss, Toronto’s trip ends over .500(5-3) and their overall record is 7-5-0-1.
Frattin, who missed the first dozen games rehabilitating his knee after off season surgery, saw played the wing on a line with Nazem Kadri and Joe Colborne and looked rusty early in the game, but on a power play midway through the first, he unleashed a rocket wrist shot that whistled over the shoulder of Bulldogs goalie Cedrick Desjardins to give the Marlies the early lead.
The 24 year old winger also was not shy about getting physically involved, as he laid heavy body checks on Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu.
"That's my game, I got to play physical." Frattin said "That's when I move my feet. That's kinda what gets me energized and gets the team energized throughout the game."
Hamilton tied the game just over three minutes later as blueliner Morgan Ellis scored his first of the year on a blast from the point that eluded Ben Scrivens. The Bulldogs took the lead as Scrivens made the initial save on former Marlie Darryl Boyce, but he could not corral the rebound, which Alexander Avtsin slid past him for his first of the season. Late in the period, team captain took a kneeing penalty and on the ensuing power play, Brendan Gallagher snuck a shot through Scrivens pads to make it 3-1.
Marlies coach Dallas Eakins understood that his team was a tired bunch, but still tried to light a fire under his road weary group.
"I felt we started well, maybe the first four or five minutes and we were going straight south and our decision making was off." Eakins said. "We were slow to make decisions, we were slow to move the puck and we had a little campfire chat after the first and I thought the second we came out and played much better."
Toronto dominated the middle frame, outshooting the Bulldogs 12-4 and narrowing the gap to 3-2 midway through the period as Frattin deflected a Nazem Kadri shot past Desjardins for his second of the game.
The Marlies continued pressing in the third and tied the game as Jerry D’Amigo scored his second of the season on a rebound of a Simon Gysbers point shot, but three minutes later, Joonas Nattinen buried a rebound to give the Bulldogs the lead and moments later, Aaron Palushaj extended the lead to 5-3 with a wrist shot that eluded Scrivens. Gallagher scored his second of the game into an empty net.
Toronto returns to the Ricoh Coliseum tomorrow afternoon for the second of the home-and-home against the Bulldogs, facing their closest geographic rival for the fifth time in fourteen games.
Here is the post game interview with Matt Frattin:
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