The Lake Erie Monsters (0-4-0) managed their highest offensive output of the young season, but fell to the Toronto Marlies (2-1-0) by a 5-3 score in Toronto Saturday afternoon. The Monsters continued to struggled on the power play, going 0-6 in the loss. The team is now 0-17 on the man advantage through four games so far this season.

Lake Erie’s Luke Walker opened the scoring on a snap shot from the left wing circle just four minutes into the opening period. David van der Gulik and Joel Chouinard assisted on Walker’s first of the season. The assists were also the first points of the year for both van der Gulik and Chouinard.

Just under nine minutes later, Toronto’s Joe Colborne streaked up the right wing, cut to the goal, and sent a backhand shot top-shelf on Trevor Cann to even the game at 1-1.

Three minutes later, Simon Gysbers fired a wrist shot from the point that beat Cann, making the score 2-1 in favor of Toronto.

In the final minute of the first period, van der Gulik picked up the rebound from another Walker shot and slipped it by Toronto goalie Ben Scrivens to tie the game at 2-2 prior to the first intermission. Evan Brophey was also credited with an assist, his first point as a Monster. The marker was the first of the season for van der Gulik.

In the second period, the Marlies regained the lead and would not relinquish it. Mike Zigomanis scored at 13:54 on the power play; he received a pass in the slot and sent a wrist shot into the back of the goal to give the Marlies a 3-2 lead.

At 15:02, Luca Caputi scored on a wrist shot from the right circle to give Toronto a 4-2 advantage.

Marcel Mueller added an empty-netter late in the third period to make the score 5-2 in Toronto’s favor.

Justin Mercier scored his first of the year on a point-shot through traffic to pull the Monsters to within two goals in the final moments, but that was as close as the game would be. Mike Brennan and Billy Ryan assisted, the first point in a Lake Erie sweater for both.

Cann falls to 0-4-0 with the loss in net; he stopped 17 of 21 shots. Scrivens stopped 26 of 29 shots; he is 2-1-0.

The Monsters and Marlies will do battle again on Sunday afternoon, with the opening faceoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m., to wrap up the first of five three-in-threes of the season for the Monsters. Today’s game in Toronto also marked the beginning of a five-game road swing for Lake Erie. They will return home on Wednesday, October 26th.

Postgame comments from head coach David Quinn: