FLAMES UNABLE TO STOP MARLIES IN 7-4 SETBACK

Glens Falls, NY – The Adirondack Flames dropped a 7-4 decision to the Toronto Marlies on Tuesday evening at Ricoh Coliseum as the team’s push towards a playoff berth took a major hit.

Emile Poirier led the way with three assists, while linemates Bill Arnold and Kenny Agostino each collected a goal and an assist. Max Reinhart and Brett Kulak also scored for Adirondack, while Jacob Deserres made 13 saves on 16 shots in relief of Doug Carr in his AHL debut. Brendan Leipsic led the way for Toronto with a hat trick, while Matt Frattin and T.J. Brennan each had four points to lead the Marlies to victory.

The Marlies opened the scoring 10:32 into the game as Connor Brown made a terrific play on the rush to feed teammate Brandon Leipsic for the goal to make it 1-0. Brown came down the left flank, hesitated and jumped past one Adirondack defenseman, before he fed Leipsic on the back door for the goal. The tally was Leipsic’s tenth of the season and the assists went to Brown and Ryan Rupert, the 39th of the season for Brown.

Toronto doubled its advantage midway through the first, as Leipsic buried his second of the evening to make it 2-0. With Toronto on the power play, center William Nylander threaded the needle to Leipsic in the low slot, and the Marlies forward redirected the puck on net and past Carr for his second of the night. Nylander and winger Matt Frattin collected the assists on the goal.

Nylander used a nice individual effort to make it 3-0 with Toronto’s second power-play goal of the evening, as he cut through the slot and sniped a wrist shot past Carr to make it 3-0. The Swedish rookie, who took the puck in from Frattin, weaved through the middle of the Adirondack defense and beat Carr blocker side for the three goal advantage. Nylander and Frattin each collected multi-point games on the play, while Byron Froese had the secondary assist. Carr’s evening would end after the first period, with four saves from seven shots.

The Flames got on the board just 13 seconds into the third period as Kenny Agostino put home a shorthanded effort to make it a 3-1 game. Off the period’s opening faceoff, the Flames got the puck to Bill Arnold in the slot, who missed the net, but Agostino collected the puck off the boards and beat Toronto netminder Antoine Bibeau low on the glove side to open the scoring for Adirondack. The tally marked the fifth straight game that the Flames have recorded a shorthanded goal.

The Marlies, however, capitalized on the very same power play as Leipsic completed the hat trick with his third goal of the evening. T.J. Brennan fed a crisp, cross-ice feed to Leipsic in the right hand circle and the winger one-timed it past new Adirondack netminder Jacob Deserres to make it 4-1. The goal marked the first career hat trick for Leipsic in his rookie season in the American Hockey League. Josh Leivo recorded the secondary assist on the play for the Marlies.

A fortuitous bounce made it 5-1 Toronto as Matt Frattin fired an errant pass from the left side that deflected off of Adirondack defenseman Dustin Stevenson’s skate and into the back of the net. Frattin’s goal, his third point of the evening, was assisted by Froese and Brennan and was the fourth power-play goal of the game for Toronto.

The Flames clawed back with a goal 3:54 into the third period, as Brett Kulak finished off a nice passing play to cut the Toronto deficit to 5-2. Emile Poirier began the play at the offensive blueline as he hit a streaking Agostino down the left wing. Agostino went cross-ice to Kulak, who buried the puck for his fourth goal of the season. The assist for Agostino gave him two points on the evening, his third straight multi-point game.

Toronto once again answered, however, as Matt Frattin finished off a nice 2-on-1 rush from the Marlies to extend the Toronto advantage back to four goals. Leivo skated down the left wing and put a saucer pass over to Frattin, who collected and put the puck into the gaping net to make it 6-2. The goal gave Frattin his fourth point of the evening.

Adirondack would fight back, however, with goals late from Max Reinhart and Bill Arnold. First it was Reinhart who took a feed at center ice from Garnet Hathaway, skated down the left wing and went top shelf on Bibeau for his 15th marker of the season to make it 6-3. Then it was Arnold, who finished a scrum in front off a Poirier blast from the point to make it a two-goal game. Poirier collected assists on both plays to complete a three point evening, while Hathaway’s assist gives him six points in his past five games.

Toronto buried an empty netter off the stick of Brennan to ice the game with a 7-4 final.

The Flames now head to Utica, for a showdown with the rival Comets in their last trip to the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The Flames return home this weekend for a Saturday-Sunday back-to-back with the Lake Erie Monsters. Friday is

United Way Night and the Labatt Blue AHL Bubble Hockey Finals, while Sunday is Autism Awareness Night! Tickets are still available for that game, and all remaining Flames home games. Visit the Flames box office, call 518-480-3355, or order online at glensfallscc.com.

Adirondack Flames Hockey • Fired Up

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