The Toronto Marlies fell to their third straight loss Saturday night versus Rochester.
After facing the league’s top team and the North Division leaders in the past two outings, this was an easier task on paper. The Americans had lost two straight heading into the game and were dealing with injuries as well as a sickness bug that has been sweeping through their room.
After a promising first 15 minutes that saw the Marlies dominate proceedings and open the scoring, Toronto shot themselves in the foot yet again.
First Period
The Marlies began brightly, drawing a penalty 21 seconds in. Toronto couldn’t cash in, but a shoot-on-sight approach with traffic in front was the right idea.
It took just over three minutes for Toronto to open their account on a great individual effort from Colin Greening, who beat two Rochester players, faked a pass on a 2v1 and finished nicely on the shortside.
With the Marlies driving hard to the net at every opportunity, Bobby Shea took exception at the six-minute mark, cross-checking Rich Clune in front before dropping the gloves. Clune easily won the fight while Shea was fortunate not to receive extra penalty minutes for instigating (or the initial crosscheck).
At the midway mark of the period, Toronto took control for a three-minute spell in which they utterly dominated possession and offensive zone time. Excellent work from Brendan Leipsic tee’d up Frank Corrado, whose long-range effort struck the post.
William Wrenn then made a heads-up play to find Tony Cameranesi driving down the middle of the ice, but his slapshot was turned aside by Ullmark. Cameranesi followed it up by driving hard to the net, but Ullmark made a sharp left pad save.
After Greening drew a penalty with seven minutes left in the period, Toronto’s powerplay struggled to create much on their second opportunity. One effort from Andreas Johnsson led to a hectic scramble in front, but the Amerks cleared the danger.
As the penalty to Brycen Martin expired, Rochester went on a 3-on-1 break that was nicely cut out by a defensive play from Travis Dermott.
On Rochester’s first man-advantage opportunity with five minutes to go in the period, the Marlies penalty kill stood firm, with Greening, Froese and Leipsic putting in some good work shorthanded.
Back at even strength, a pair of turnovers from Johnsson and Wrenn saw the Amerks come close to tying the game on a pair of great chances.
Justin Holl was the next to turn the puck over, handing possession straight to Cole Schneider. Bibeau’s piece of robbery ensured his team carried a narrow lead into the middle frame.
Second Period
As they had in the opening period, Toronto began the second with good tempo, spending extended time in Rochester’s end. Unable to create a scoring chance, Rochester scored the other way on their first foray into Toronto’s zone.
The Marlies missed opportunities to clear their zone and lost several battles along the wall before Tim Kennedy found Casey Nelson, who released a snapshot that beat Bibeau through a bunch of traffic in front of the crease.
Bibeau faced a barrage of shots after that and came up with a wonderful save to deny Alex Nylander during an odd-man rush. Another turnover from Holl presented a chance to Jean Dupuy, but Toronto’s goaltender bailed out his teammates again.
A nice individual play from Colin Smith broke the rhythm of Rochester’s attack — driving between two Amerks players, Smith sped around the back of the net and was denied on the wraparound attempt, drawing a penalty in the process.
Toronto was fortunate not to allow a shorthanded goal when they gave up a 2-on-1 shorthanded break against. Four minutes later, a second straight powerplay went to waste as Toronto failed to set up the offensive zone even once and were barely able to string two passes together.
A little momentum earned by the Marlies fourth line quickly dissipated after another Marlies turnover proved costly. Breaking out up the wall, Trevor Moore had time and options but sent a sloppy backhand pass through the middle that allowed Justin Bailey to pick off the pass. In alone on Bibeau, Bailey finished clinically high over Bibeau’s glove hand.
Late in the period, Cameranesi had two half chances to tie the game but was unable to pull the trigger on consecutive backdoor feeds from Clune and Rychel.
Third Period
With an abysmal record when trailing through 40 minutes, Toronto required a better start to the third than what they mustered. Andrew Nielsen turned the puck over in the neutral zone to Cal O’Reilly and was thankful to Bibeau for a breakaway stop.
Dmytro Timashov then headed to the box for hooking 2:33 into the period. While the penalty was seen off without danger, Toronto was off the pace until the eight-minute mark.
Leipsic, a constant thorn in Rochester’s side, broke the Amerks blue line with pace and tested Ullmark fully before Johnsson couldn’t force home the rebound in front.
That sparked a spell of pressure from the Marlies — Greening came close on two occasions and efforts on net from Brett Findlay and Andrew Campbell were well held by Rochester’s goaltender as the Marlies crashed his net.
The game appeared dead and buried with five minutes remaining after yet another Marlie turnover in a controlled breakout situation proved costly — this time William Wrenn was the culprit, with Bailey picking out Dupuy in front for his first goal of the season.
Sheldon Keefe, who must be sick of pulling his goaltender this season, pulled a hail-mary move swapping out Bibeau as soon as Toronto won the puck from the restart. For once it paid dividends, as a fantastic reverse pass from Froese across the crease found Leipsic at the backdoor and Leipsic made no mistake.
With three minutes left on the clock, Dermott picked out Leipsic in a promising position but there was a little bit too much heat on the pass and Leipsic wasn’t able to get a good shot off. Bibeau exited the net again with a little over a minute to play, but there was no tying goal forthcoming as Toronto slipped to their third straight defeat.
Post Game Notes
– This was the Marlies’ fifth consecutive one-goal defeat.
– The Marlies have now slipped to sixth in the North Division and are tied on points percentage with the bottom-ranked Binghamton Senators.
– Toronto is now 1-4-1-0 in the season series with Rochester with four games still to play.
– Despite a promising first attempt, the powerplay got progressively worse as the game wore on and finished up 0 for 4. “I thought our power-play was really good early,” said Keefe after the game. “We got one right off the start of the game. We were all over the net. The puck just wasn’t falling for us — not giving us the bounce we want. We’ve got our people all around the net there, doesn’t go our way and we get into the second period and I thought our powerplay lost its structure and we got a little too cute with it, much like the rest of our game, and it’s ultimately the difference. The powerplay has been something we’ve been able to rely on game after game and it hasn’t been coming through for us. Didn’t come through for us today, and we really could have used a little help there.”
– Consecutive multi-point games for Brendan Leipsic takes his season numbers to 36 in 31 games.
– Travis Dermott recorded two assists for his first points of 2017 (his third multi-assist game through 24 appearances). He’s still searching for his first professional goal.
– One of Colin Greening’s better game’s this season as he influenced proceedings at different junctures. Toronto require him to step up and build on his inadequate production so far this season.
– Tobias Lindberg was hurt in the first period following a hit by Dan Catenacci and didn’t return to the game. The injury appeared to be upper body, possibly his left arm.
– Kasperi Kapanen is out indefinitely according to Sheldon Keefe. The unconfirmed report is that he suffered an ankle injury of some kind.
– With Garret Sparks called up, the Marlies signed goaltender Taylor Dupuis to an ATO contract. A former Sudbury Wolf and Sarnia Sting, Dupuis has spent the last two seasons playing CIS hockey for Ryerson.
