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Goaltending and special teams: The Albany Devils were much better in both those departments and it proved the difference in game one of this Eastern Conference semifinal series.

The Devils put together a nearly perfect road performance and edged the Marlies in the small details of the game. Toronto shouldn’t hang their heads after this defeat, however. In significant spells, especially in the opening 40 minutes, the Marlies were the better team at even strength and created plenty of chances.

First Period

The home team carried the play for most of the first frame in what was a frantic start to the game. The two Smiths combined in the opening 80 seconds to tee up Kasperi Kapanen, who watched both his efforts denied by Scott Wedgewood.

At the two-minute mark, Wedgwood had to be alert to keep out an intended pass from Mark Arcobello to Connor Brown that nearly crept inside the near post after a deflection.

It’d take almost four minutes for the visitors to threaten Toronto’s net. Reid Boucher, found in space on the right wing, chose to shoot early and Garret Sparks gathered the effort on the second attempt.

All four Marlies lines had plenty of jump early, with the fourth line nearly opening the scoring through Rich Clune and Frederik Gauthier after some good puck movement.

How the Marlies failed to open the scoring with seven minutes on the clock defied belief. Leivo, Brown and Arcobello put together a smart piece of play that resulted in the Arcobello denied, with the rebound falling to Stuart Percy. Percy patiently held on to possession as Albany scrambled, going around the left of the net. With Wedgwood down and out, Percy fired at the empty cage, but Albany’s Nick Lappin threw himself in the way to deflect the effort wide. Call it blind luck, but it was a sheer desperation play and it proved a turning point of sorts.

Albany scored on their first powerplay of the game 90 seconds later, with Brian O’Neill’s wrist shot through traffic beating Sparks top shelf short side.

That began a spell of three goals in two minutes, with Toronto initially tying the game up.
After Colin Smith won an offensive zone faceoff won, Kapanen quickly found Connor Carrick. Back peddling to find a lane, Carrick’s shot snuck through the pads of Wedgewood after being deflected in front by an Albany defenseman who was in the process of roughing up Ben Smith.

Exactly 61 seconds later, Toronto presented Albany a go-ahead goal on a silver platter. Leivo was guilty of turning the puck over at the Devils blue line, giving up an odd-man rush the other way. Mike Sislo dished off to Matt Larito, but his shot wasn’t the best and should have been gloved. Sparks seemed to parry the effort before batting it into his own cage — an awful mistake and one you can barely afford in situations like this.

That was a real dagger for Toronto, who failed to produce as many chances in the second half of the opening period. Colin Smith should have done better than to fire wide when given time and space in the right circle after good work from Sam Carrick.

With three minutes remaining, Rinat Valiev showed off some of his offensive capabilities by jumping into the play and splitting the defense. His backhand chip attempt was shut down by the right pad of Wedgewood, who gave up no second opportunity. That sparked a good 30 seconds for the Marlies, with Brown and Arcobello again combining, but Brown was frustrated as his shot from a promising position was blocked by a defenseman.

Toronto finished the period down a man after Valiev was hauled off for tripping. It was the right call, but it was also certainly an embellishment by Brian O’Neill.

Second Period

The Marlies killed the penalty that carried over into the second frame and then set about fixing the score line.

Sam Carrick faked a dump-in down the right boards before showing a turn of speed to glide by his man and shoot from the right circle. It brought generated a big rebound off of Wedgwood, but the puck eluded everyone in a Marlie jersey.

Despite controlling possession in the opening five minutes, too many shots were either off target or into the chest of Wedgewood, who wasn’t handing out many second opportunities.

Albany should have increased their lead after Sparks failed to hold onto a rapid shot from O’Neill, but Lorita couldn’t force home the rebound. The constant nonsense after every whistle from Albany was a deliberate tactic of slowing the game down and not allowing Toronto to gain any momentum.

It eventually led to some four-on-four play much to the displeasure of the home fans, who felt their team were being shortchanged by the officials.

A third straight powerplay for Albany followed after a hooking call on Kapanen.
Again it was the right call, but again there was some obvious embellishment.  Albany certainly pushed the boundaries of the rules, and it’s something the Marlies will have to be cognizant of if the next set of officials are as lenient as this group.

The penalty kill did its job well for the most part, reliant on a one huge save from Sparks and an equally essential block from Percy after failing to take two opportunities to clear the zone.

The mood inside Ricoh Coliseum didn’t improve with just over eight minutes to play. Arcobello had the step on his opponent, but he was clearly held when attempting to drive across toward the net. No call from the officials brought howls of derision from the Ricoh stands.

Joseph Blandisi finally got a call to the box a minute later for interference. The irony of him trying to imply Kapanen “dived“ wasn’t lost on the crowd, who found their voices and got behind the Marlies first powerplay of the game.

The tying goal was a mere inches away. Flashing his electric foot speed, Kapanen attempted to score a carbon copy of his World Juniorr golden goal, but somehow Wedgewood got back across in time to just deny the effort.

If anything, that save by their goaltender gave Albany a boost for the remaining five minutes of the second period. The visitors dominated much of the play, but Toronto generated the best opportunity when Colin Smith broke on a 2-on-1 rush with Kapanen. Wedgewood turned aside Kapanen’s backhand effort with another fine stop.

Third Period

After Zach Hyman was lucky not to sustain a serious injury after taking a knee from Blandisi, Toronto began the final frame with 1:28 of powerplay time. The extra man opportunity went to waste before Albany could have sealed victory with two excellent chances inside the opening six minutes.

Sparks had to deny O’Neill and then Boucher on the rebound as Albany swarmed his net. A turnover presented O’Neill with yet another chance, but Sparks was doing his best to atone for his earlier error.

They didn’t know it at the time, but the Marlies best chance to tie came at the seven-minute mark. Clune jumped off the bench and collected a pass in his stride; with support to his right in Tobias Lindberg, he sent the puck across to the Swedish forward but Lindberg couldn’t jam his effort by a determined Wedgewood.

Toronto were gifted a powerplay at the midway mark but again looked unlikely to score, bar one opportunity. Leivo had the best chance from the slot, but it was deflected wide by another key shot block from Albany.

As the clock ticked down, it appeared less likely the Marlies were going to pull this one out the bag, with Albany playing masterfully with the lead. Lorito almost made it a 3-1 on a wraparound attempt, with Sparks scrambling to keep the puck out of his net.

A frustrated Lindberg took a penalty that played into the hands of Albany, burning more time off the clock.

Toronto should have had one last powerplay with 3:30 remaining. Brendan Leipsic was incredulous about an uncalled slash as he tried to stickhandle his way through Albany’s defense.

Sparks was pulled with seconds under two minutes left, but Wedgewood wasn’t truly tested as Albany took game one by a score of 2-1.


Post Game Notes

– Connor Carrick recorded his fourth goal of the post season, pushing his point total to eight and tying him for the lead in post season scoring.

– Kasperi Kapanen recorded his third assist of the post season, skating in his third game. Kapanen has recorded eight points in 10 career AHL playoff games.

– Garret Sparks was handed the reigns, but failed to do himself justice. The second goal was on him and generally his rebound control was poor throughout. It’s hard to see Sheldon Keefe not going back to Antoine Bibeau for Friday’s game.

– Connor Brown led all skaters with five shots on goal.

– Toronto was 0/3 on the powerplay and 3/4 on the penalty kill.

– Albany’s Jim O’Brien was injured in opening seconds of game after sliding into the boards. The experienced centreman did not return to the game.

– The Marlies played some catch-up hockey in the Bridgeport series with considerable success, and started Game 1 game well last night, but they were given a lesson on the dangers of falling behind twice to the best defensive and shot suppression team in the League. The extracurriculars from Albany were a deliberate tactic meant to stunt momentum and slow the game down against the faster Marlies, and to draw penalties in order to benefit from their excellent special teams. As much as there were legitimate grievances with the officials, the Marlies are going to have to adjust.

– Scratches for Toronto were: Campbell, Dermott, Frattin, Johnson, Nylander, Kolomatis, Soshnikov. Nylander is on the mend from illness and the Marlies are hopeful he’ll be back for Friday night.


Game Highlights


Sheldon Keefe Post Game


Marlies Player Stats — Albany 2 vs. Toronto 1

PlayerPositionGA+/-SHPIM
Brennan, T.J.D00010
Carrick, ConnorD10132
Percy, StuartD00-120
Hyman, ZachRW00040
Leivo, JoshLW00-110
Carrick, SamC00020
Clune, RichardLW00002
Leipsic, BrendanLW00020
Lindberg, TobiasLW00002
Smith, BenRW00100
Gauthier, FrederikC00010
Arcobello, MarkC00-140
Brown, ConnorRW00-150
Smith, ColinC01120
Holl, JustinD00010
Kapanen, KasperiLW01142
Loov, ViktorD00-100
Valiev, RinatD00112