Toronto stops Hamilton

 

Tom Palko (HV)

 

When Jaroslav Halak was named the AHL’s goaltender of the month for November, he sloughed off the idea that the honour was anything but a team accomplishment. “That’s because of the guys.” Halak went 7-1-0 for the month, with a goals against average of 0.82 and a save percentage of .972. And yet his comments were about how well his teammates were playing in front of him.

Getting of to a slow start, which included going nearly ten minutes before registering their first shot, the Bulldogs spent much of the first period hemmed in their own zone, defending against the Marlie onslaught which unleashed 13 shots, to Hamilton’s 4.

Being constantly on the defensive eventually caught up to the Bulldogs, as Toronto’s Jaime Sifers tallied a power play goal with Hamilton’s Ryan O’Byrne in the penalty box with just 9 seconds left on a holding penalty. Sifers’ goal accounted for the first time in 7 games that Hamilton failed to score first.

 

Being quite fortunate to only be down 1-0 after 1 period, the Bulldogs began to pick up their play registering 12 shots on goal. One of those shots coming from Andrei Kostitsyn, who picked up his own rebound and buried the puck behind Jean-Francois Racine to draw the home team even. That goal was Kostisyn’s third in four games, which doesn’t include his two shoo-out goals against Grand Rapids on this past Wednesday.

 

Halak was forced to be sharp again in the second, as the Marlies threw another 13 shots on net. Halak, as has been the case for November, was perfect in turning all of the shots away.

 

Toronto jumped ahead 4 and a half minutes into the third, when Alex Foster used twqo Bulldogs and one teammate to screen Halak and score his second goal of the year.

 

The Marlies’ lead was short lived as, just 3:56 later, Mikhail Grabovski took a perfect pass in the slot from Duncan Mirloy, who was left alone behind the net, to grab his 5th goal of the season.

 

With barely more than 4 minutes remaining in the final period, Jean-Phillipe Cote took a high sticking penalty. A mere 8 seconds later, Kris Newsbury tipped in a point shot for the game winning goal, and his 7th of the year.

 

The Marlies tallied twice in the third on just 3 shots, and the Bulldogs had their lone goal on 12 shots, which nearly evened out a very lopsided statistic at 29 Marlie shots to 28.

 

The win boosts Toronto’s record to 1 game below .500 at 9-10-2-1, while Hamilton falls to 12-9-0-1 to remain tied with the Manitoba Moose for second in the North Division.

 

Game Notes: Three Stars: 1. TOR – Kris Newbury 2. HAM – Mikhail Grabovski 3. TOR – Jean-Francois Racine; Attendance – 6244 (season high); Dan Jancevski’s 5 game point scoring streak came to an end; Hamilton’s Mathieu Roy continues to lead the AHL in plus/minus at +15; Hamilton’s power play was 0-8, while Toronto went 2-5.