Connor Brown back with a bang
October 30, 2015 feels like a lifetime ago in this incredible season for the Toronto Marlies.
It’s probably felt longer for Connor Brown, who injured himself blocking a shot on that day in a game against the Grand Rapids Griffins.
After 85 days and 35 games on the shelf, it’s been a long road back, especially the last couple of weeks as the 2014-15 rookie scoring champion was straining to be let off the leash.
When Toronto’s medical staff finally released the shackles, the now stronger and hungrier Connor Brown was able to make an immediate impact in his return to action at Ricoh Coliseum.
Three minutes and 44 seconds in, Marlies captain Andrew Campbell found himself down low on the left wing, where his intended cross-ice feed was intercepted by Joseph LaBate. The Utica winger failed to clear the danger, with Brown on hand to jump on the loose puck and score his first of the season.
Utica tried to respond through Alex Friesen, who was a danger to Toronto on Saturday. He tested Antoine Bibeau from the high slot but the Marlie goaltender gobbled up the shot.
The Marlies doubled their lead four minutes after opening the scoring. Zach Hyman’s heads-up play found debutant David Kolomatis surging into the right circle and Kolomatis’ wrist shot beat Richard Bachman all ends up.
Brown was placed on an interesting-looking line alongside Nikita Soshnikov and Brett Findlay in his return. With some early chemistry visible between them, the third goal wasn’t long in coming.
Findlay intercepted a pass in the Marlies zone before Brown picked up the loose puck and surged across the Utica blue line. Dropping the puck back to Findlay, it looked as if the centreman would pass to his left to Soshnikov, returning it instead to Brown who fired home his second of the game.
Bibeau had to be alert to deny Chris Higgins after the winger found himself some space down the left side, but immediately Toronto went and scored a fourth to further demoralize the visitors.
Frederik Gauthier, after winning the battle for possession of the right boards, handed off to Matt Frattin, who sent a gorgeous reverse backhand pass to T.J Brennan down the left. After settling down the puck, the defenseman wired in his 16th of the season from the top of the left circle.
Four goals in just over 12 minutes saw the end of Richard Bachman’s afternoon between the pipes, with Joe Cannata coming off the bench to replace him.
A mere ten seconds came the low point of the game from Toronto’s perspective. Utica’s Darren Archibald, noted for his certain style of play, took a run at Stuart Percy in the left corner of Toronto’s zone. After a spell down on the ice, Percy managed to leave the ice under his own steam but did not return for the rest of the game. Archibald received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding.
Despite a five-minute powerplay and a two-minute man advantage, the Marlies weren’t able to further increase their lead in the opening period.
Any ideas the visiting Comets had about gaining a foothold in the game were dispelled inside the first eight minutes of the middle frame.
A turnover led to Casey Bailey leading an odd man rush on the left wing. His drop pass was perfect for Brennan, who scored his second of the day on a one-time effort.
A powerplay for Utica, their first of the game, only served to allow Toronto to make the score 6-0.
Both teams exchanged rushes before Leipsic made his speed count. Splitting the defense, the left winger buried his 13th of the season.
A second Utica powerplay almost presented Brown with a hat trick but his snapshot was well stopped by Cannata.
The Marlies only fired six shots during the second period but each felt like a great scoring chance. Hyman was the next to be denied by a fine stop after some excellent play from Mark Arcobello to tee him up.
A third consecutive Comets powerplay resulted in some work for Bibeau, who must have felt like a passenger for long passages of this game. His double save on Taylor Fedun and Brendan Gaunce was probably his best sequence of the game.
It was cruel that a possible shutout bid for Toronto’s goaltender was crushed with two minutes remaining in the middle frame. A long outlet pass from Jordan Subban found Carter Bancks, and the Utica forward headed in on net with Brennan seemingly giving up on the play.
Why had he given up? Because Bancks was clearly offside, and Brennan thought the linesman would make the call any second. It didn’t, and Bancks finished nicely to put his team on the board. Brennan later held his hand up in ownership of the error, acknowledging he should have played to the whistle, but it truly was one of the worst missed offside calls imaginable. Thankfully it had no bearing on the game.
Two late penalties meant Utica began the third period with a two-man advantage for 18 seconds, and there was still over a minute left on the second infraction. Toronto successfully killed both and scored again to extinguish any remaining hope for the Comets.
It may have been the nicest tally of the game as Mark Arcobello weaved his way past three Utica players on a goal of all his own making, before firing back across Cannata to beat the goaltender stick side.
There was no further scoring in the final 17 minutes despite six penalties being taken, the majority by Utica. Toronto were looking to tee up Brennan and Brown for their hat tricks whenever possible, but it wasn’t to be.
Brown came the closest to recording what would have been his first professional hat-trick but his effort smashed against the iron with 30 seconds to play.
It was 7-1 final score, but more importantly it was a dominant performance from a Toronto Marlies team playing some of its best hockey this season.
Post Game Notes
– The victory was Toronto’s 15th on home ice this season, taking them to 70 points.
– After all the success of the powerplays on Saturday, neither team were able to capitalize with the man advantage despite 11 opportunities.
– Easy to forget Antoine Bibeau’s performance with all the goal scoring. He made 28 saves for his 15th win of the season and there were some dandies in there. A better showing after some shaky moments against Syracuse last week.
– A fourth straight multi-point game for Mark Arcobello moves him to fifth in AHL overall scoring (37 points) despite having played only 30 games — significantly fewer than those above him.
– It’s getting to the point where I’m running out of superlatives for T.J Brennan.
Yesterday was the multi-goal game of the season for Brennan, who has 14 points in January and is currently the AHL’s leading scorer.
– Stuart Percy did not suffer a concussion or any kind of head injury according to Sheldon Keefe. He sustained a lower-body injury and was seen limping after the game. Not ideal, but certainly a better scenario than initially seemed the case at the time of the hit.
– Defenseman David Kolomatis made a solid debut paired with T.J Brennan and chipped in with a nice goal.
– Connor Brown’s script writer missed out on the hat-trick goal, but otherwise it was a tremendous comeback performance. Those were his first goals of the season, which he admitted was a relief as he was somewhat snake-bitten before his injury. Brown put seven shots on goal and was named first star.
Game Highlights
Marlies Player Stats — Toronto 7 vs. Utica 1
| PLAYERS | Position | G | A | +/- | SH | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell, Andrew | D | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Brennan, T.J. | D | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Morin, Jeremy | LW | 0 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 2 |
| Percy, Stuart | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hyman, Zach | RW | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Leipsic, Brendan | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Rupert, Ryan | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Gauthier, Frederik | C | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Kolomatis, David | D | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Arcobello, Mark | C | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Brown, Connor | RW | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Findlay, Brett | LW | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Bailey, Casey | RW | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Frattin, Matt | RW | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Kapanen, Kasperi | RW | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Loov, Viktor | D | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| Valiev, Rinat | D | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Soshnikov, Nikita | LW | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
