The Toronto Marlies will welcome a foe not often seen and a familiar old rival to the Ricoh Coliseum for this weekend’s double header.
The Marlies are now halfway through a six game homestand and are feeling good about themselves having won all three thus far.
Giving up just four goals in the process, the Marlies are beginning to turn Ricoh into a fortress with form resembling their impressive record away from Toronto. In a run stretching back to the turn of the year, Toronto are 9-0-1 at home and are looking to extend that streak despite a string of absences.
Brendan Leipsic, Mark Arcobello, Josh Leivo, Stuart Percy are still with the Leafs. Jeremy Morin also missed the midweek game, so we’ll no doubt see more of recent additions John Kurtz and Colin Smith. Rich Clune and Viktor Loov have been loaned back to the Marlies and could feature Friday night.
Friday, February 26 — Hershey at Toronto, 7:00 pm EST
The Hershey Bears, the visitors on Friday evening, aren’t short of confidence either right now.
They’ve won four of the their last five road games, improving what was at best a .500 record on their travels. Since January 10, Hershey has strung together a 12-2-2-2 run, with both regulation losses coming against Providence Bruins. Having plundered Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4-1 during the week, they won’t be fearing anyone right now.
Much like Toronto, the Bears don’t have trouble scoring (186 goals) and only behind the Marlies in the Eastern Conference in that regard.
Unsurprisingly it’s Chris Borque (57 points in 52 games) who leads the team in offense as he is currently the leading points producer in the AHL. He’s dynamite on the powerplay with eight goals and 16 assists, so Toronto will need to stay out of the box and have him accounted for should the need arise on the penalty kill. After an eight-game point streak he’s gone cold for two games, but someone of his ability won’t remain quiet for long.
Borque has been ably assisted in scoring by rookies Riley Barber (41 points) and Travis Boyd (39) points. Boyd is another to watch on the man advantage with seven powerplay goals to his name. Barber is on a ten game point streak (10G/10A), making him one of the league’s hottest players right now. AHL All-Star Connor Carrick is their leading producer from the blueline (24 points).
Keeping the puck out of their net has been Hershey’s achilles heel despite two veteran goaltenders to lean on.
Dan Ellis and Justin Peters have a combined save percentage of just .900 this season, with Hershey having given up 167 goals. They have essentially split the starts during Hershey’s good run of form, but based on recent performances the expectation is Ellis will take the start against Toronto.
Both of these teams have identical powerplay numbers, but the Marlies should be able to find an advantage on the penalty kill. Ranked fifth highest in times shorthanded, Hershey has given up 44 goals while down a man, which accounts for over 25% of their goals allowed this season.
Special teams played a huge part in the only meeting between these two teams this season back in December, as Toronto scored twice on five attempts while staying disciplined and killing the two penalties they took. The Marlies won game 6-2, but just two of the goal scorers remain with the team at this time. The Marlies responded to the hosts opening the scoring by scoring four times unanswered. T.J Brennan enjoyed the encounter with two goals and a helper on Toronto’s first goal.
Much like the last encounter, it’s Toronto’s ability to stay disciplined and play the structured game we’ve seen of late that will be key to taking the two points.
The Marlies are 17-1-1-0 against teams outside their own division this season.
Saturday February 27 — Rochester at Toronto, 3:00 pm EST
The Marlies’ old rivals from Rochester will provide the opposition Saturday afternoon. It will be the first time these two teams have met since December 4.
The Americans don’t have good memories to fall back on this season. An 8-2 victory in Rochester by the Marlies was followed by a much closer game three weeks later in which Toronto prevailed 1-0 in overtime. Since then, Toronto have won 5-1 and 4-0, as this season series has a lopsided feel to it.
The Amerks have basically been a .500 team this season, but they’ve achieved some good results of late. Winning three of their last four, Rochester have beaten Portland and WBS Pens on home ice while thumping Syracuse 6-2 on the road.
Rochester will be missing two of their better forwards in Cal O’Reilly and Justin Bailey, and will rely heavily on leading scorers Jason Akeson and Phil Varone to produce. Tim Schaller scored a hat trick in the recent Syracuse game and has 12 goals in 30 outings having also spent time with the Sabres this season.
Despite the aforementioned players, offense has been a real issue for Buffalo’s affiliate, with their 136 goals tied for the lowest total in the Eastern Conference.
Much like Hershey, Rochester match up relatively well with Toronto’s powerplay efficiency, but their penalty kill has been an issue. To have a chance against Toronto, the Amerks will be relying on their goaltending to be excellent. With Andrey Makarov hurt at the beginning of the year, Nathan Liuwen and more recently Linus Ullmark have carried the workload. The latter has impressed in recent wins with 43- and 51-save performances, respectively.
Rochester are a team you take lightly at your own peril, but they should be no match for Toronto in their current vein of form.
