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The War Memorial Arena in Syracuse has not been a happy hunting ground for Toronto in recent history.

The Marlies lost all four games during their second-round playoff series with the Crunch last Spring and would have lost this encounter if not for an exceptional performance between the pipes from Garret Sparks. For a goaltender under pressure with the arrival of Calvin Pickard, Sparks has so far risen to the challenge with aplomb.

First Period

Toronto could not have gotten off to a worse start and found themselves behind inside the opening minute. A long outlet pass on the left wing from Dennis Yan took every Toronto player on the ice out of the equation, including the out-of-position Timothy Liljegren. Mitchell Stephens had time to line himself up in the left circle and beat Sparks far side.

Having regained their composure, the Marlies responded by tying the game up with four minutes played. After relentless puck pursuit in the Crunch zone resulted in a turnover, Miro Aaltonen was the recipient above the hashmarks. Yet to find the net this season despite a host of excellent chances, the Finnish forward didn’t appear to be gripping his stick too hard as he sniped home past Connor Ingram.

The Crunch should really have retaken the lead but failed to capitalize during a 2-on-1 break facilitated by a stumble by debutant Calle Rosen.

After Sparks was called into action on the first Marlie penalty kill of the game, his team rewarded his efforts with a 4-on-4 marker. Travis Dermott sent the puck down low to Colin Greening, who worked his way around the back of the net for a wraparound that somehow sneaked past Ingram. The Syracuse goaltender was subsequently pulled after just 10:27 of action

Michael Leighton took Ingram’s place between the pipes, but he was mostly a spectator as he watched Sparks single-handedly prevent Syracuse from tying the game.

The struggling Crunch power play was left wondering how they failed to score on their second attempt of the night. Toronto’s penalty killing efforts were terrible in the first frame; the four Marlie skaters were all over the place as the puck was worked to Cory Conacher at the side of the net. Sparks came up with two spectacular sprawling saves, with a review required to confirm he kept the puck out, to keep the Marlies lead intact.

On the same penalty kill, with four Marlies on the wrong side of the puck, Conacher had an empty to shoot at a few feet from goal. Sparks stretched back and across to his left more to pluck the puck in his glove out of midair for another ten-bell save.

The Marlies wasted two power play opportunities of their own despite some good looks for Andrew Nielsen and Dmytro Timashov, and were also reliant on Sparks once more to deny Michael Peca on a shorthanded breakaway.

Second Period

Up 2-1 lead through 20 minutes, Toronto extended their lead 3:28 into the middle frame.
After surviving an early surge from the Crunch, the Marlies got down to work in the Crunch zone, where Greening attempted a couple of give and go’s with Chris Mueller; the former’s intended second pass banked off of the trailing defensemen and in past Leighton.

That’s as good as it got for Toronto, as Syracuse dominated the second period while outshooting the Marlies 13-7. Cheap turnovers were the story of the period, one of which cost the Marlies as the midway mark approached.

Trevor Moore was somewhat guilty of coasting back after losing the puck inside the Crunch zone, and Toronto wound up with three players in a perfect line backing off inside their blue line. Rookie Alexander Volkov took advantage and scored far side on Sparks for his first career AHL goal.

Toronto’s goaltender somehow kept the lead intact through 40 minutes.

Third Period

Even strength play was few and far between in the final frame of regulation with eight players taking trips to the box.

Toronto actually did a good job of generating some offensive zone time in the first half of the period — Syracuse put just two shots on goal in the first 10 minutes — but didn’t create a whole lot offensively.

Toronto generated a fantastic chance to extend their slender advantage at the midway point. Jeremy Bracco found Colin Greening low in the right circle, but with a hat-trick in sight, Leighton pulled off his best save of the night to keep his team within one.

The line of Ben Smith, Mason Marchment and Andreas Johnsson followed up that near miss with a terrific shift, drawing a penalty in the process.

At this point, the Marlies may have been better off deferring power plays; gaining the zone entry seemed to be beyond them and off-the-mark passes almost gifted Syracuse short-handed opportunities the other way.

The final five minutes were littered with penalties, and Syracuse carved themselves out one last chance. Kevin Lynch looked set to double his goal tally this season but Sparks came up big once again. During a spell of 4-on-4 play, Toronto was able to ice the game with Leighton pulled for the extra attacker.

Andreas Johnsson was the beneficiary after good work from Calle Rosen and Ben Smith.

There were still over two minutes to play, but despite another penalty from Toronto creating a 6-on-4 situation, the Marlies penalty kill and Sparks stood firm to clinch the sixth victory of the season.


Post Game Notes

– Friday’s lines:

Forwards
Rychel-Aaltonen-Soshnikov
Timashov-Mueller-Moore
Clune-Greening-Bracco
Marchment-Smith-Johnsson

Defencemen
Dermott-Liljegren
Nielsen-Rosen
Valiev-Marincin

Goaltenders
Sparks
Pickard

Healthy Scratches: Kasperi Kapanen, Justin Hill

– Toronto went zero for seven with the man advantage. The penalty kill was not good early but improved as the game went on and managed to stay perfect on eight Syracuse PP opportunities.

– Justin Holl was also a healthy scratch to make way for Calle Rosen, who registered an assist on debut. Bar for a couple of shaky moments early on, the Swedish defenseman had a solid game and showed some promise offensively.

– Colin Greening helped himself to a pair and has three goals on the season. A season-high five shots also led all skaters in this game.

– Timothy Liljegren had probably his worst game defensively but played a role in the second Marlies goal.

– An assist for Ben Smith takes his tally up to eight points — a point per game pace.

– Nikita Soshnikov took Kapanen’s slot on the top line but had a quiet game by his standards (no shots on goal).

– Miro Aaltonen finally got the monkey off his back with a first AHL goal.

– Last but not least, Garret Sparks posted 29 saves for his fourth win of the season and is carrying an impressive .934 save percentage through five games.


Game Highlights


Post-Game: Sheldon Keefe


Game Sheet: Toronto 4 vs. Syracuse 2

SkaterPosGAPIMShots+/-
Valiev, RinatD00000
Nielsen, AndrewD00420
Liljegren, TimothyD01212
Dermott, TravisD01212
Moore, TrevorLW00000
Johnsson, AndreasLW10011
Rychel, KerbyLW00010
Clune, RichardLW00010
Smith, BenRW01021
Mueller, ChrisC01400
Marchment, MasonLW00030
Soshnikov, NikitaRW00000
Bracco, JeremyRW00200
Greening, ColinC20052
Timashov, DmytroLW01220
Aaltonen, MiroC10010
Rosen, CalleD01030
Marincin, MartinD00020