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After suffering their worst defeat of the season this past Saturday, the Toronto Marlies were looking to bounce back on Tuesday evening versus Rochester.

The visiting Americans had lost four in a row but owned a 6-1-0-1 record against the Marlies entering the game.

First Period

After the miserable third period against Binghamton, the Marlies got the start they needed in this game, opening up a big lead through the opening 20 minutes.

Toronto was up inside two minutes thanks to the retuning Tobias Lindberg, who took a stretch pass from Andrew Campbell, danced between two Amerks defensemen, and beat Linus Ullmark blocker side off of his backhand.

There weren’t many shots on goal in the first frame, but Toronto was certainly making them count. The lead was doubled at the sixth-minute mark following a spell of sustained of pressure in the Americans zone. Justin Holl worked his way around Alex Kile and measured his shot past Ullmark from the heart of the slot.

Less than 60 seconds later, the Marlies extended their lead to three on the power play.
Sheldon Keefe continues to persist with the five-forward PP unit and it paid dividends on this occasion, with Andreas Johnsson teeing up Mike Sislo at the backdoor.

Kasimir Kaskisuo, given the nod over Antoine Bibeau, wasn’t called into action until the final seven minutes of the period. An odd-man rush presented Kile with a chance to get Rochester on the board, but Kaskisuo was equal to the effort.

Toronto scored a fourth almost immediately after. Excellent work from Kasperi Kapanen saw him keep the puck in the Amerks zone before sending it down low to Brett Findlay, who picked out Seth Griffith with a perfect cross-ice pass. Ullmark pulled off a wonderful flying save on the initial effort but the rebound fell back to Griffith, who lifted his second chance over the Amerks goaltender.

With four goals on five shots to this point, Toronto could easily have extended their lead before the intermission.

Holl led a 3-on-1 break, but the opportunity went to waste. A second power play opportunity with a minute remaining should have seen the Marlies score with a second left on the clock. Cal O’Reilly split the Rochester defense with a seeing-eye pass to Johnsson, who had Ullmark down and out but somehow failed to slide the puck into the yawning cage right as the buzzer sounded.

Second Period

The Amerks switched goaltenders for the beginning of the second period, with John Muse taking over for Ullmark. Muse would have allowed a goal five minutes in if not for the quick whistle of the referee; a rapid shot from Sislo produced a rebound that Johnsson pounced on, but the referee thought the goaltender was in full control of the puck.

Score effects were setting in and Toronto’s effort was sagging with the lead. After facing just four shots through 20 minutes, Kaskisuo became a far busier man in the middle frame. He made several key saves, turning aside Kyle Bonis, Nick Baptiste, and Justin Vaive.

The final five minutes of the period saw the teams exchange power plays, with the Marlies‘ best opportunities coming while down a man. Kapanen’s speed was too much to handle for the Amerks but the Finnish winger couldn’t beat Muse, who also did well to deny Colin Greening on the rebound.

Third Period

Rochester kept pressing early in the third period; Kaskisuo had to be alert inside the five first minutes to deny Bonis, who found himself space in the middle of the ice. Mat Bodie was the next to test Toronto’s rookie goalie after some nice interplay set him up at the side of the net.

The Marlies — certainly clinical if nothing else throughout this midweek game — scored a fifth at the nine-minute mark. After a misplay from Rochester at Toronto’s blue line allowed Findlay to grab possession and offload to Kapanen, the easy play was to shoot; instead, Kapanen found Griffith with a heads-up play to his right. Griffith cut across the crease and lifted the puck top-shelf from his backhand for his second of the game.

Both teams were now going through the motions with the destination of the two points in no doubt whatsoever. Toronto nearly scored shorthanded through Frederik Gauthier, who showed a burst of speed to beat two Amerks players before wiring his shot high of the target.

That was the last action of note until the final minute when Greening broke up a Rochester entry at the Marlies blue line before sending Trevor Moore away on a breakaway. The rookie never had full control crossing the blue line but he recomposed himself with a nice backhand finish for the Marlies’ sixth goal of the game.

Toronto was outshot 26-10 through the final 40 minutes, relying on Kaskisuo to maintain the lead. Sheldon Keefe didn’t like the Marlies’ overall performance but was pleased by his team making good on its chances in front of goal and finally catching a few breaks against Rochester this season.

“Obviously we built a big lead early on. We were moving pucks around pretty good and it seemed like luck was on our side early. Luck has been hard to come by this year. We’ve lost a lot of games where I thought we outplayed them pretty good and they get excellent goaltending and we couldn’t score enough to win. It seemed like that all game back around for us in one game here, to get four goals on the first five or six shots.

From there, I didn’t like our game. We didn’t do great things with the puck. We didn’t play great defensively. We had to rely on our goaltender more than we wanted to in the second period. I thought he was the real difference in the game to keep it comfortable for us, rather than running around and chasing the game like the last time out.

We get the goals early on, and that’s a nice response. But then we’re set up pretty good to show some growth and get another chance at showing we can take care of leads, and we didn’t do that very good in the second period. We get out-chanced, outshot badly. Goaltending, I thought, was the difference. Again, showing the signs that our team has a long way to go to be a good team that can win consistently. If we want to be a playoff-type team, we’ve got to take care of things like that, have more pride in our game, and stick with our process all the way through. We won the game 6-0, but there were a lot of things not to like about today’s game.”

– Sheldon Keefe after the Marlies’ 6-0 win over Rochester


Post Game Notes

– The Marlies’ magic number for playoff qualification is 21 with eleven games remaining.

– This was Toronto’s 20th home victory of the season.

– Mike Sislo extended his goal and point streaks to three games. After scoring six times in 54 games for San Antonio, the right winger has already matched that goals total in eight appearances for Toronto.

– Seth Griffith has recorded five consecutive multi-point games, extending his overall point streak to six games.

– Kasimir Kaskisuo made 30 saves for his first career AHL shutout in just his fourth start. Going back to last season, when he played twice at the end of the season, Kaskisuo is yet to lose a game in regulation.

“I thought he was terrific,” said Keefe. “We only gave up a few chances that were grade-A, but he looked very solid. Very confident. I think our guys felt good about his play; maybe too good. Maybe that’s why we took the foot off the gas a little bit.

“Certainly, it’s good to see him come in with two starts at this time of year, step in and look as comfortable as he is. It’s a credit to the folks in Orlando that have set him up and the work that Piero Greco has done all season in keeping in contact with him and spending time down here, and obviously to him for stepping in and being a confident guy and stopping the puck for us.”

– A pair of assists for Kasperi Kapanen broke a two-game pointless streak. He’s just about back to his best form from before his injury but was clearly frustrated not to get in on the goal-scoring action in this one.

– Kerby Rychel was suspended for this game due to Saturday’s events against Binghamton but is available for this Friday’s rematch against the Senators.

– Cal O’Reilly, facing his old team for the first time since his loan move to Toronto, picked up an assist on Sislo’s power play goal in the first period. He’s riding a four-game point streak with six assists over that span.


Game Highlights


Post-Game: Sheldon Keefe


Game Sheet – Toronto 6 vs. Rochester 0

SkaterGAPIMShots+/-
Campbell, Andrew01012
Valiev, Rinat00001
Holl, Justin10012
Oleksy, Steve00022
Nielsen, Andrew01002
Dermott, Travis00201
Sislo, Mike10040
O'Reilly, Cal01000
Johnsson, Andreas01000
Kalinin, Sergey00400
Findlay, Brett01013
Kapanen, Kasperi02012
Gauthier, Frederik00000
Lindberg, Tobias10021
Greening, Colin01012
Griffith, Seth20042
Timashov, Dmytro01003
Moore, Trevor10012