Bibeau holds the fort as Marlies down Comets
Often times previous form means nothing coming into a game.
After a seven game point streak, Utica had lost five straight entering Wednesday night’s game, allowing 23 goals in the process.
Encounters against Toronto this season have been closely fought affairs, all decided by essentially a single goal, and this meeting proved no different.
With a fervent home crowd fully behind them, the Comets roared out of the gates and spent the first 45 seconds deep in the Marlies zone. Wacey Hamilton had the first real opportunity during that spell, and Utica’s early dominance was only halted by a penalty after two minutes.
The Marlies‘ first powerplay showed promise. Jeremy Morin saw two shots from his off-wing well stopped, while an effort from Casey Bailey was gloved by Richard Bachman.
Growing into the game despite not tallying on the man advantage, the road side came close through Zach Hyman, who tested Bachman to the hilt with a wicked wrist shot that produced a fine kick save.
It looked likely that Toronto would open the scoring, and that they did a few seconds before the ten minute mark. Soshnikov, the beneficiary of a turnover just outside Utica’s blueline, drove the slot and his bullet of a shot gave Bachman no chance. The home team allowed the opening goal for the ninth time in their last 10 games.
The goal only served to stoke the fires of the Comets, who would carry the play for the remainder of the first period.
Hamilton picked out Mike Pereira heading to the net, but the latter couldn’t get enough on his shot with just one hand on his stick. Brandon Marino was the next to test Bibeau, shooting straight from a faceoff and almost banging home the rebound in the ensuing scrum.
Disciplinary issues then struck the Marlies, with Arcobello’s unneeded slash sending his team to the penalty kill. Alex Frieson had the best chance of the Utica man advantage, but Antoine Bibeau was there to deny him with a right toe save.
As the penalty ended, Utica orchestrated a break down the right wing. Pereira was a menace to the Marlies all game long, and he forced T.J Brennan to bring him down to deny a glorious scoring opportunity.
The resultant powerplay saw Utica tie the game up with 17 seconds remaining in the first period. A one-time shot from defenseman Jon Landry at the blueline weaved its way through traffic and found the twine.
The middle frame saw Toronto start out the better team. The much-maligned Matt Frattin saw his wrist shot gloved by Bachman before drawing a penalty on the following shift.
An elbow high up on Soshnikov meant a two-man advantage for the Marlies, but they created only one chance on the 5 on 3. It was a fantastic chance, as Brennan found Morin backdoor with a terrific pass, but the certain goal was denied as Bachman threw himself to his right, getting enough of the shot to send it wide.
Utica survived their time down two men and were thankful for another fine stop from Bachman, this time on Kapanen, to kill the remainder of the penalty.
The huge penalty kill served to spark Utica into life. They were only denied a go-ahead goal by Andrew Campbell, who came to Bibeau’s rescue with a goal line clearance with his netminder beaten.
In what was a penalty-ridden affair, Justin Holl was the sixth man to enter the box before the halfway point.
Toronto were thankful to Frieson for cancelling out the penalty with a boarding penalty, taking advantage of some four-on-four play to extend the lead.
Travis Ehrhardt tried to dump the puck away from danger, but only found the stick of Stuart Percy. The defenseman wasted no time finding Brendan Leipsic, who in turn found Ryan Rupert with a wonderful pass. Down low and to the left of the net, Rupert produced a great finish to beat Bachman top shelf.
With a single second left on what was still even strength at the time of the goal, Toronto went to a powerplay at the resumption of play. Unable to produce anything of note, they found themselves on the penalty kill shortly after.
Mark Arcobello wound up all alone on a breakaway, but his former OKC teammate Bachman denied him a shorthanded marker with a sharp glove save. With 13 seconds left on the man advantage, Loov was off to the box, meaning Toronto were down by two men.
The Marlies survived, and almost extended their lead with 45 seconds to play following the penalties. Frattin dished the puck off to Leipsic, who in turn left a deft trailing pass for Rupert. Bachman was almost beaten by Rupert’s shot, but the puck trickled just wide of his far post.
A save by Bibeau on Andrey Pedan by Bibeau as the buzzer sounded kept the one goal advantage intact, but Toronto’s netminder was in for a lot of action in the third. Utica fired 16 shots in the direction of Bibeau, with the action beginning just seconds into the final frame of regulation.
Toronto responded with a good cycle, and Leipsic’s shot was tipped just wide by Brett Findlay.
A Marlies powerplay at the three minute mark failed to create an opening and yet again provoked a response from Utica. As the penalty came to an end, the home team engineered an odd-man rush.
With the passing lane blocked, Taylor Fedun had no option but to shoot and Bibeau stood tall to block the effort away to safety.
Frieson was the next Utica forward left frustrated. Sent on a breakaway, he decided to shoot from the slot, but Bibeau was there to bail his team out again.
Despite only registering three shots on net in the third period, Toronto had their opportunities.
Frattin, who had a more noticeable game than his usual fare of late, engineered an odd-man break after beating his man down the right wing. He drove to the net but fired his backhand effort over the crossbar.
You had to feel for Bibeau when Utica finally tied the game at two. Hunter Shinkaruk was afforded space behind the net and attempted to jam his wraparound effort through Bibeau. The rebound slid across the crease and fell to Darren Archibald. Despite being unbalanced and in an awkward position, Archibald was able to fire the puck up and over the shoulder of Toronto’s goaltender in what was truly a fine finish.
Utica should probably have taken the lead with four minutes left to play, when Toronto were badly exposed and allowed a 3-on-1 break. They would be indebted to Viktor Loov, who showed poise and great timing with his full length dive to deflect away the intended cross-ice pass and avert the danger.
There would be no late heroics from either team, and it was off to overtime for the third time this season between these two teams.
There were only four chances of note, as two efforts from Utica’s Fedun and Hamilton were bookended by chances for Rupert and Leipsic. Both goaltenders were excellent, ensuring the game was headed to a shootout.
Leipsic was a force during the overtime period, and if he hadn’t over skated the puck with 45 seconds to go would surely have buried the winner instead of hitting the outside half of the post.
With Utica first to shoot in the skills competition, Shnikaruk’s excellent backhand attempt found enough of Bibeau’s glove to send it wide.
Nikita Soshnikov decided to walk in slowly on his turn, deceiving Bachman enough to beat him with a backhand shot. Bibeau handled Frieson’s effort with ease, and Morin was only denied from finishing the game off by a great pad save by Bachman.
The pressure was on Curtis Valk to score, and despite having Bibeau going the wrong way on a fancy deke, Valk lost control and the puck slipped just wide of the yawning cage.
Post Games Notes
– A 35 save performance from Antoine Bibeau, who was excellent. This certainly puts down a marker with Garret Sparks set to return to the team. Bibeau has won six of his last seven games and owns a 2.21GAA and 0.926 save percentage during that span.
– Nikita Soshnikov tallied his 12th goal of the season and second shootout winner.
– Six straight victories is a season high, and four of those have been by a single-goal margin, as this team finds ways to win despite notable absences.
– Toronto have now won thirty games and remain unbeaten in the shootout (4-0).
– For a full review of the first half of the season, including player grades, click here.
Game Highlights
In lieu of game highlights (unavailable), here are the highlights of the week from the Toronto Marlies.
Marlies Player Stats — Toronto 3 vs. Utica 2
| Player | G | A | +/- | SH | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell, Andrew | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Brennan, T.J. | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Morin, Jeremy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Percy, Stuart | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hyman, Zach | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Clune, Richard | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Leipsic, Brendan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Rupert, Ryan | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Gauthier, Frederik | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Arcobello, Mark | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Findlay, Brett | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bailey, Casey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Frattin, Matt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Holl, Justin | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Kapanen, Kasperi | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| Loov, Viktor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Valiev, Rinat | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Soshnikov, Nikita | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
