There won’t be much in the way of festive cheer when the St. John’s IceCaps visit Toronto for a back-to-back showdown beginning on Boxing Day.
The two teams will face off in what is sure to be a fiercely-contested pair of matinee games, first at the ACC before moving to the Ricoh Coliseum.
If anything the rivalry between Toronto’s and Montréal’s affiliate has become more intense since the Habs switched their farm team from Hamilton to Newfoundland.
The IceCaps holding the upper hand so far has certainly cranked up the animosity level, as they have yet to lose to Toronto in regulation, leading the series 7-3 in points accrued.
At the back end of November, St. John’s came into Toronto and dominated the Marlies, handing them a pair of heavy defeats, 6-2 and 5-1 respectively.
Since then, however, Toronto is unbeaten in regulation having gone 8-0-1 through December.
St. John’s have had a much easier schedule through this month, having only played seven times with the last four at home. The IceCaps have had a longer rest period than most teams having not played since December 16.
Surprisingly the IceCaps have lost in regulation to Binghamton and Rochester during that time, but they’re currently riding a three-game point streak including a pair of wins over the Albany Devils in consecutive outings. The most notable thing about those pair of wins is the goaltending they received.
Zachary Fucale made 44 saves as the IceCaps held on to win 3-2 in the first game, with the rookie goaltender improving his record to 8-3-2.
Eddie Pasquale was not to be outdone the next game, stopping 45 of 46 shots face in a 5-1 victory.
Bud Holloway continues to lead the IceCaps offensively, although he’s having a lean spell with only a single point in his last five games.
Rookie Michael McCarron recorded a hat trick in his last AHL outing, and since then was recalled to Montreal to make his NHL debut. There were no points for McCarron during his pair games with the Canadiens, but he’s sure to be confident with that experience in his locker.
Charles Hudon has 20 points equally split between goals and assists this season and he’s enjoyed success in this series, with nine of those coming against Toronto (4G/3A).
Another player to have achieved personal success against the Marlies this season is defenseman Morgan Ellis. Half of his 16 point total has been accumulated against Toronto.
A new name to look out for is Lucas Lessio. Ten days ago, Montreal traded Christian Thomas for the Ontario-born winger who was selected 56th overall by Arizona in 2011. Recording an assist on debut for St. John’s, Lessio took his career AHL tally to 100 points. A proven goalscorer at this level, 52 of his 100 points have hit the twine — 29 of those in his rookie season.
One would be remiss to mention Mark Barberio, who is seventh overall in defenseman scoring and his assist tally of 18 is good enough for fifth in the category.
Toronto holds a slight edge in the specials teams battle overall, but these rivals both own very good penalty kills — Toronto’s is ranked third and the IceCaps’ sixth.
That hasn’t been the case when playing each other however, with the Marlies tallying five times on 19 opportunities and the IceCaps scoring six with the same number of chances.
Discipline could be the deciding factor, a facet Toronto were not particularly strong in the last game between the two teams.
Despite losing William Nylander, Toronto were able to tally twice on the powerplay in the last outing against Hershey. The Marlies will be counting on the likes of Mark Arcobello, T.J Brennan, Josh Leivo and Brendan Leipsic to step up and fill the void Nylander leaves behind the next few weeks.
Despite Toronto’s huge lead in the North Division — currently 13 points — matchups against those rivals are still as important, especially during a time when the Marlies are without several key players.
We could see the return the Frederik Gauthier from injury, while Ray Emery and Rob Madore look set to continue to hold the goaltending fort for the foreseeable future.
Schedule
Saturday, December 26 — St. John’s at Toronto, 3:00 pm EST (ACC)
Sunday December 27 — St. John’s at Toronto, 3:00 pm EST
