Luke Fulghum scored the first three goals of his American Hockey League career to lead Toronto to a 6-1 win over Cleveland before 9,110 fans at the Air Canada Centre on Monday afternoon.
Brad Leeb also had a goal and an assist for the Marlies, who snapped a three-game losing streak.
Fulghum, who had one assist in 10 career AHL games entering the contest, assisted on Jay Harrison‘s power-play goal 12:47 into the game, ending the shutout streak of Nolan Schaefer at just over 145 minutes.
He then scored his first career AHL goal 6:30 into the second, and gave the Marlies a 4-1 lead with his second of the game later in the period.
Fulghum capped his unlikely hat trick at the 6:25 mark of the third period.
Bates Battaglia also scored for Toronto, and Tyler Beechey and Ben Ondrus recorded two assists each.
J.S. Aubin finished with 26 saves for the Marlies.
MANITOBA 1, ROCHESTER 0
Sebastien Centomo made 28 saves as Manitoba posted a 1-0 win over visiting Rochester on Monday afternoon.
It was the Moose’s fourth straight win, and third by a 1-0 final.
Jason Jaffray scored the only goal of the game, on a 5-on-3 power play with 5:56 left in the first period.
Jean-Marc Pelletier made 16 saves for the Americans, who dropped their third in a row.
The teams meet again on Tuesday evening.