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The Toronto Marlies put on their worst performance of the playoffs in the opening game of the Eastern Conference Finals.

On a high after downing Albany in seven games, Toronto rarely competed with a Hershey Bears team that took a while to get their legs under them in Game 1.

First Period

The Marlies were certainly the better team through large parts of the opening period, although they would have wanted to test Peters more often.

It took just 75 seconds for Toronto to create their first good opportunity. Good work from Percy and Leivo down the right side set up Connor Brown in the slot, but his one-timer whistled wide of the cage.

Hershey responded by fashioning themselves an equally good chance at the other end. Travis Boyd found himself with a ton of space and made a reverse pass from behind the net to Jakub Vrana, who fired high from a tight angle with Bibeau struggling to get across his net.

The first shot on net didn’t occur until the seven-minute mark, when Ben Smith let fly from the right faceoff dot and Justin Peters clung onto the effort.

The opening goal of the series wasn’t far behind that initial salvo. The recently-criticized William Nylander started and finished the play; first, he stripped the puck from former Leaf Zach Sill at centre ice before curling around and breaking the Hershey zone with speed, dishing the puck off to Kasperi Kapanen before driving right to left across the slot. The Finnish winger picked out Nylander, who had a step on his opponent, and the Swede lifted a backhand shot over Peters.

The Marlies were controlling the puck and looked likely to add their lead before a debatable holding call on Stuart Percy sent them to the penalty kill. Hershey moved the puck well but forced Bibeau into just one save when Christian Djoos ripped a shot from the left circle that the Toronto netminder did well to get a piece of with his blocker.

A 2-on-1 rush orchestrated by a chip off the boards in their own end saw Brendan Leipsic and Nylander break up ice. With Nylander covered, Leipsic tried his own luck but Peters did well to stop the shot without a rebound.

The remaining five minutes of the first period was the Bears’ best sequence of the opening frame. Garret Mitchell was the first to come close but his tip on a long-range shot found the wrong side of the left post. Vrana twice forced good saves from Bibeau, and so did an effort from Boyd in-between, as Hershey gave Toronto the runaround late in the period.

Only a fine shift from the Marlies fourth line broke up the Bears’ pressure, with Nikita Soshnikov’s chipped effort from the slot just missing after a set-up from Rich Clune.

The shots favoured the road team 7-5 and they were just about full value for a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes. That was as good as it would get in this game for the Marlies, however.

Second Period

A cheap turnover in the first minute of the middle frame had the Marlies scrambling and unable to clear their zone. Ryan Bourque was gifted space on the left side and measured a shot that Bibeau could not hold onto with his glove, but the rebound was poked away to safety.

A Hershey goal felt inevitable and arrived with 3:39 on the clock. Caught running around in their defensive zone and failing to take their opportunities to clear, Toronto were pinned in their own end for 75 seconds. After the Bears were able to bring a full line change of fresh legs into the Marlie zone, the breakdown was inevitable. Carter Camper was left all alone between the circles, and the Bears’ leading playoff scorer beat a screened Bibeau to tie the game at 1-1. Leipsic was the guilty man, neither blocking the shot or getting out of the lane, but it was a terrible shift from every skater on the ice.

The ice felt even more tilted following the Hershey goal, but Toronto held on before earning themselves a powerplay seven minutes into the period. Ryan Stanton blocked three shots and the Marlies weren’t able to test Peters before the penalty expired.

Connor Carrick, who wasn’t enjoying his return to the Giant Center, allowed Vrana to strip him of the puck in front of net and was grateful to Stuart Percy after Percy averted the danger by getting his stick in the lane to deflect Vrana’s shot high to safety.

A TV timeout at the midway point seemed to do the trick for Toronto as they dominated the puck and generated a spell of pressure in the Hershey zone when play resumed. Unable to create a scoring chance, it was the Marlies’ last significant spell of possession during the second period.

Chris Bourque and Vrana must have felt like it was Christmas time with the amount of time and space available to them in the Marlie zone, and the two of them almost combined with five to play; Vrana fired wide on his initial effort and nearly banked home a big bounce off the backboards. Camper then failed capitalize from a gift in the slot after a sloppy and tired Toronto team committed a pair of consecutive icings.

Hershey’s second powerplay of the middle frame confined Toronto to their own zone with little hope of escape, such was the efficiency of Hershey’s puck control. Vrana once again had the best chance, with Bibeau doing well to make the first stop on Vrana’s backhand before poking the rebound away after a scramble.

Back at even strength for the remaining 44 seconds of the period, Toronto still could not get out of their own end. As the horn sounded, defenseman Ryan Stanton appeared to sneak his backhand shot in the net just before the buzzer. It was a close run thing as to whether or not the goal should stand, but the officials ruled that time had run out.

Third Period

Everyone connected with Hershey felt hard done by, but to their credit the no-goal call didn’t seem to affect the team at all in the final period. Toronto were still way off the pace, and despite needing to be a whole lot better in the third period, never threatened to match Hershey in any department.

It took less than three minutes for the Bears to take a deserved lead. Liam O’Brien fired through traffic and beat Bibeau short side on a shot that the goaltender would probably want back.

Toronto were able to kill off Hershey’s third penalty of the game and finally tested Peters at the six-minute mark, when Kapanen found some space down the middle of the ice, but his shot was well held onto.

A 3-on-2 break followed shortly after, but the puck movement was too slow in the buildup and Leivo watched Peters smother his effort with ease.

The dagger goal came eight minutes into the third period on Hershey’s fourth powerplay of the game. After Camper and Aaron Ness were denied, Zach Sill crashed home a rebound in front to put the Bears up 3-1.

Never has Toronto looked less likely to mount a comeback this season than they did in this game. The score line could easily have been worse, such was Hershey’s dominance in every zone.

Sheldon Keefe played his last card with 4:20 to go, pulling Bibeau from the net for the extra attacker. It provided 30 seconds or so of offensive zone time but that ended with another Leivo shot turned aside by Peters. Hershey coasted home to as easy of a Game 1 victory as they could have imagined.


Post Game Notes

– This was a worrying loss for Toronto, who showed little in the way of urgency or purpose after taking the lead. Too many turnovers in all zones and too many individual efforts, with structure sorely lacking in the final 40. The space afforded to the line of C. Bourque-Boyd-Vrana was alarming at stages.

– Sheldon Keefe summed it up like so: “We played today like it was a Sunday afternoon ‘3-in-3’ in mid-January.”

– Getting back to work as early as Saturday night can be counted as a blessing. The Bears worked hard, generated their opportunities through a strong forecheck and won the small battles all over the ice, but Hershey are far from an unbeatable foe.

– Notable scratches were Matt Frattin, Colin Smith and Sam Carrick. It’s not hard to envision lineup changes coming, especially with the back-to-back scenario.

– Antoine Bibeau wasn’t necessarily at his best — certainly not on the second goal — but he shouldn’t take the heat for this loss. I do fully expect Garret Sparks to be given his next opportunity Saturday night, however.

– Mark Arcobello crashed hard into boards in the third period but did return to the ice shortly after. Puck management was a major issue for Arcobello throughout this game, although certainly wasn’t alone in that respect.

– The lone goal was Nylander’s third of the postseason.

– Kasperi Kapanen’s assist extends his points streak to three games.


Game Highlights


Sheldon Keefe Post Game


Marlies Player Stats — Hershey 3 vs. Toronto 1

PLAYERSPositionGA+/-SHPIM
Campbell, AndrewD00000
Brennan, T.J.D00020
Carrick, ConnorD00022
Percy, StuartD00-102
Hyman, ZachRW00000
Leivo, JoshLW00042
Clune, RichardLW00-100
Leipsic, BrendanLW00020
Lindberg, TobiasLW00010
Smith, BenRW00-120
Gauthier, FrederikC00000
Arcobello, MarkC00010
Brown, ConnorRW00010
Holl, JustinD00000
Kapanen, KasperiLW01010
Loov, ViktorD00-102
Nylander, WilliamC10010
Soshnikov, NikitaLW00-130