Looking to get back on track after the first three game losing streak of the season, the Toronto Marlies headed on the road to face three highly-rated Eastern Conference adversaries.
It was a weekend that began well against Atlantic opposition but slowly went downhill, finishing with a poor showing in Albany.
The nine goals scored by Toronto on Friday night was the fourth occasion they’ve scored more than eight this season. The other 29 AHL teams combined have scored 9 or more goals in a game just twice. The five goals scored by Toronto in the second period of the Portland game is also a season-high after scoring four times on two previous occasions.
That achievement was juxtaposed with a seasonal low in overall shots taken on Sunday, as Toronto managed just 19 efforts on net against Albany.
Special teams and discipline really let the Marlies down when it mattered most over the weekend. The two powerplay goals were attained in Portland when the game was dead as a contest. Five man-advantage opportunities went begging in Albany, while the Marlies provided just as many in return and paid the price on two occasions.
Discipline was better in Providence, but the Marlies failed to take advantage of a four-minute powerplay that could’ve made a big difference.
Toronto Marlies 9 vs. Portland Pirates 2
We witnessed the very best of the Toronto Marlies with their current line-up on Friday evening as they demolished a strong Portland Pirates team.
Blasting out to a three-goal lead inside ten minutes, it was one way traffic until Portland got themselves on the board with nicely worked goal before the end of the first.
Toronto put the game to bed in the middle frame with two goals in as many minutes and another three in the second half of the period.
Tobias Lindberg came close to recording his first hat trick, while the powerplay finally clicked, netting twice as Toronto cruised to an impressive 9-2 victory. Mark Arcobello and Connor Brown recorded four points while the aforementioned Lindberg and Sam Carrick had two goals a piece.
Providence Bruins 3 vs. Toronto Marlies 2 (OT)
The same quality of performance was needed against a Bruins team that was unbeaten in regulation in their last 21 games on home ice. For 30 minutes, Toronto were again excellent and deservedly led by two goals inside nine minutes. Matt Frattin and Kasperi Kapanen provided the first-period scoring, while Antoine Bibeau remained solid between the pipes.
The Marlies were unable to take chances to increase their lead before the Bruins took control of the game at the midway mark.
Toronto’s lead only held after 40 minutes thanks to the work of Antoine Bibeau, but he was helpless in holding off the Bruins inside the first four minutes of the third period. Frank Vatrano orchestrated the first scored by Alexander Khokhlachev, while a badly-timed pinch by Justin Holl allowed Brian Ferlin to score on an odd-man rush.
The Marlies eventually calmed the storm but failed to trouble Providence, firing just four times at net in the final 20 minutes.
Overtime produced a couple of chances for both teams, but the momentum had fully swung in favour of Providence, who gained the extra point with a second goal from Ferlin.
Albany Devils 3 vs. Toronto Marlies 2
Despite taking the loss in Providence, Toronto had shown overall good discipline against a Bruins team whose special teams have been excellent this season. Facing an Albany team also highly skilled in those departments, Toronto lost their heads.
With both teams playing their third game in as many days — albeit Toronto with more travel — it looked to be an even playing field. You could argue it should have been the Marlies who held the edge, with the Devils shorn of much offensive talent through call-ups and injuries.
The opening 20 minutes was lacking action in front of goal and gave no hint at the madness to come from Toronto in the second period.
Brendan Leipsic opened the scoring with exactly one minute on the clock proved as good as it would get for the visitors.
Persistent penalty trouble (five minors in 12 minutes) were Toronto’s undoing as Raman Hrabarenka tallied twice on the powerplay in the span of two and a half minutes.
Despite Toronto appearing incredibly tired in the third period, Eric Faille showed a burst of speed to tie the game with a fine individual wraparound goal. That would prove to be just one of three shots for the Marlies in the third period.
As time ran down, overtime looked in the cards for the second consecutive game, and it would have been had Toronto decided not to throw the puck up the middle of their own zone inside the last minute. They duly paid the price for the error and subsequent missed assignments, as Nick Lappin scored the game winner uncontested in front.
Player Notes
– Not helping matters for the Saturday-Sunday contests: Mark Arcobello recorded four points Friday night, but was unavailable due to illness for the rest of the weekend (replaced by Brett Findlay).
– T.J Brennan responded to his reassignment by recording three assists over the weekend.
– Rich Clune’s assist took him to the 20-point mark this season. He’s just two shy of equalling a career best in the AHL.
– Since his return to the Marlies, Josh Leivo has just two points (both attained in Portland) in seven games. Snake bitten this past weekend, it’s no exaggeration to say Leivo could have had himself 5-6 goals over the three games. It’s always better if you’re missing chances than getting no chances at all, and Leivo has proven to good of a producer at this level for his post-reassignment form to last much longer.
– Taylor Doherty made his Toronto Marlies debut Friday night after being signed to a PTO. Paired with Stuart Percy, he didn’t look too far out of place, helping himself to an assist in the Albany game. He was guilty of taking a double minor on Sunday with an ungainly high sticking penalty, however.
– Goaltending wasn’t the issue this weekend. Antoine Bibeau did what was required Friday evening with a solid performance. He was excellent in Saturday’s overtime loss, especially in the second half of the game when Boston dominated. Alex Stalock made 21 saves on his second start for Toronto and did his utmost to keep a tired and offensively-shy Marlies in the game on Sunday.
– Brendan Leipsic’s lone goal this weekend was his 17th of the season. The winger has six points during a current four-game point streak.
– Matt Frattin passed the 30-point mark on Sunday and is currently riding a four-game point streak.
Upcoming Games:
Friday, March 18 — Lehigh Valley at Toronto, 7:00 pm
Saturday, March 19 — Providence at Toronto, 3:00 pm
Sunday, March 20 — Toronto at Lake Erie, 3:00 pm
Toronto Marlies Player Stats — March 16
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SHG | SOG | SH% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T.J. Brennan | D | 62 | 22 | 36 | 58 | 31 | 47 | 8 | 0 | 154 | 14.3 |
| Mark Arcobello | C | 39 | 22 | 28 | 50 | 18 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 127 | 17.3 |
| William Nylander (X) | C | 37 | 18 | 27 | 45 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 110 | 16.4 |
| Colin Smith (total) | C | 64 | 17 | 27 | 44 | 0 | 35 | 2 | 1 | 132 | 12.9 |
| Colin Smith (SA) | C | 54 | 13 | 21 | 34 | -4 | 33 | 2 | 1 | 115 | 11.3 |
| Colin Smith (TOR) | C | 10 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 23.5 |
| Brendan Leipsic | LW | 54 | 17 | 26 | 43 | 15 | 30 | 4 | 1 | 139 | 12.2 |
| Josh Leivo | RW | 45 | 14 | 26 | 40 | 13 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 132 | 10.6 |
| Zach Hyman (X) | RW | 54 | 13 | 20 | 33 | 28 | 22 | 0 | 4 | 121 | 10.7 |
| Matt Frattin | RW | 61 | 11 | 20 | 31 | 3 | 49 | 2 | 0 | 116 | 9.5 |
| Tobias Lindberg (total) | RW | 48 | 10 | 19 | 29 | 10 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 108 | 9.3 |
| Tobias Lindberg (BNG) | RW | 34 | 5 | 17 | 22 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 7.5 |
| Tobias Lindberg (TOR) | RW | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 41 | 12.2 |
| Nikita Soshnikov (X) | LW | 50 | 18 | 10 | 28 | 24 | 18 | 3 | 2 | 119 | 15.1 |
| Sam Carrick | C | 44 | 11 | 15 | 26 | 11 | 86 | 1 | 0 | 98 | 11.2 |
| Connor Carrick (total) (X) | D | 47 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 23 | 50 | 3 | 1 | 104 | 9.6 |
| Connor Carrick (HER) | D | 47 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 23 | 50 | 3 | 1 | 104 | 9.6 |
| Richard Panik (X) | RW | 33 | 9 | 16 | 25 | 5 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 13.6 |
| Connor Brown | RW | 28 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 63 | 14.3 |
| Kasperi Kapanen | RW | 36 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 50 | 18 |
| Andrew Campbell | D | 60 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 36 | 62 | 0 | 0 | 79 | 11.4 |
| Stuart Percy | D | 50 | 4 | 17 | 21 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 56 | 7.1 |
| Rinat Valiev (X) | D | 54 | 3 | 18 | 21 | 32 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 53 | 5.7 |
| Richard Clune | LW | 38 | 6 | 14 | 20 | 15 | 116 | 1 | 2 | 36 | 16.7 |
| Justin Holl | D | 49 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 32 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 6.2 |
| Casey Bailey (X) | RW | 38 | 4 | 14 | 18 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 7.3 |
| Brett Findlay | LW | 36 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 47 | 10.6 |
| Frederik Gauthier | C | 52 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 17 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 47 | 10.6 |
| Viktor Loov (X) | D | 53 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 13 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 4 |
| Ryan Rupert (X) | C | 29 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 20 |
| Byron Froese (X) | C | 4 | 3 | 0 | 3 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 23.1 |
| Eric Faille | F | 9 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 11.8 |
| John Kurtz (total) | LW | 31 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -4 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 8.7 |
| John Kurtz (UTI) | LW | 25 | 2 | 0 | 2 | -5 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 12.5 |
| John Kurtz (TOR) | LW | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Scott Harrington | D | 17 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 5 |
| Frank Corrado (X) | D | 7 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| James Martin | D | 14 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -2 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| David Kolomatis | D | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Rylan Schwartz (X) | C | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 16.7 |
| Eric Baier (X) | D | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Taylor Doherty | D | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Jack Rodewald (X) | RW | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Justin Johnson | RW | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| T.J. Foster (X) | RW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
Toronto Marlies Goalie Stats — March 16
| Goalies | GP | Mins | W | L | SL | SO | GA | GAA | SVS | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Massa | 1 | 59:56:00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 0.941 |
| Rob Madore | 4 | 240:00:00 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1.25 | 99 | 0.952 |
| Jonathan Bernier | 4 | 239:43:00 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 1.25 | 91 | 0.948 |
| Garret Sparks | 20 | 1151:33:00 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 45 | 2.34 | 557 | 0.925 |
| Alex Stalock | 4 | 240:48:00 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2.49 | 108 | 0.915 |
| Antoine Bibeau | 31 | 1817:38:00 | 21 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 87 | 2.87 | 807 | 0.903 |
| Ray Emery | 6 | 360:25:00 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 142 | 0.888 |
