Marlies avenge loss with 5-1 romp

The Toronto Marlies defeated the Abbotsford Heat, 5-1, on Thursday night in front of 6,244 fans at Ricoh Coliseum, evening the teams’ best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series at one game apiece.

Abbotsford, which would see its 11-game winning streak snapped, jumped out to a 1-0 lead just over 10 minutes into the first period on a goal from Jon Rheault, but Toronto responded with two goals late in the first period from Ryan Hamilton and Matt Frattin.

Toronto continued their production, as Jerry D’Amigo and Korbinian Holzer scored early in the second period, and Nazem Kadri added an empty-net tally in the third.

Ben Scrivens stopped 37 of 38 shots in the victory for the Marlies. Danny Taylor made 24 saves in defeat.

Game 3 will be Saturday night in Abbotsford, B.C., at 10:00 ET (Leafs TV, AHL Live).