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The Toronto Marlies find themselves rooted to the bottom of the North Division standings following a third successive defeat on home ice in the space of seven days.

Looking to bounce back after a lopsided loss on Saturday, the Marlies were largely masters of their own downfall yet again despite an encouraging first period showing.

First Period

After Kasimir Kaskisuo made a sharp save on the first shot of the game, the Marlies responded with a positive start and an opening goal inside three minutes. Following good forechecking pressure from Griffen Molino deep in the corner, Adam Cracknell picked up a loose puck in the left circle and the slightest of deflections from Trevor Moore in front was enough to find the net.

The lead lasted only 62 seconds, however, as a turnover from Timothy Liljegren up the wall to Kole Lind left Kaskisuo outnumbered in front and Zack MacEwen knocked home a rebound.

The Marlies had numerous chances to regain the lead, but Sam Gagner, Colin Greening, Cracknell and Andreas Borgman (twice) failed to beat Ivan Kulbakov with a series of shots that were a little too easy on the Comets netminder.

Second Period

The middle period began with more of the same, but Andrew Nielsen, Trevor Moore and Jordan Subban also didn’t challenge Kulbakov enough from promising positions.

Utica earned the first power play of the game, disrupting any momentum the Marlies gained early in the period before Toronto switched goaltenders due to injury.

Kaskisuo was forced into a fantastic diving glove save to snare a puck off the goal line after a bounce off the end boards, hurting himself in the process and springing Jeff Glass into action.

It didn’t take long for Utica to take advantage, albeit with the help of more slack play from the Marlies. Michael Carcone breezed his way past Jordan Subban on the outside, leaving the defenseman in his wake before cutting across the crease and scoring on his backhand past Glass.

Toronto attempted to respond through Borgman and Liljegren, respectively, but the Marlies couldn’t get on the end of a couple of juicy rebounds.

The task became vastly more difficult once the Marlies fell behind 3-1 with five minutes left in the second period. On a 2v2 fast break, Boucher’s mid-air finish was spectacular, with Josh Jooris a step behind on the backcheck.

Third Period

The reigning Calder Cup champions rarely looked up to mounting a third-period comeback and trailed by three once Jeff Glass let a shot from Guillaume Brisebois sneak through him with nine minutes on the clock.

The Marlies struck back 12 seconds later with a nice top-corner finish from Pierre Engvall on a breakaway, but Utica didn’t give Toronto any sniff of a potential comeback after that.

The manner of Utica’s empty-net goal to seal the victory summed up the Marlies’ weekend, as Andrew Nielsen couldn’t settle a bobbling puck down and Cam Darcy broke away to finish into the vacant cage.

A goal for Cracknell courtesy of Jeremy Bracco was nothing more than a consolation prize with 30 seconds remaining, but it was well deserved after Cracknell’s best performance of the young season.


Post Game Notes

– Defenseman Ryan Sproul, signed to a PTO, put in a decent display on debut despite being paired with Jordan Subban, who had a game to forget.

Subban has been a frustrating player to watch early in the season. At fault for the third goal, his decision making in general with and without the puck needs a great deal of work. Much of Utica’s offensive zone time ice-time was the result of poor decisions with the puck by the Marlies, and he was more culpable than others.

Jeff Glass allowed three goals on 16 shots and looked really rusty in his second relief appearance this week.

Pierre Engvall had a two-point game to give him four for the season (two goals/two assists), and he led all skaters with eight shots.

Emerson Clark left the game and didn’t return following a clean open ice hit that left him shaken up.

Adam Cracknell had his best outing as a member of the Marlies, but that was a low bar to aim for after a disappointing beginning to the year. Much more engaged physically, Cracknell helped himself to three points (1-2-3), and hopefully that’s the sign of better things to come from a player who was undoubtedly Laval’s standout forward last season.

– Monday’s lines:

Forwards
Timashov – Gagner – Bracco
Molino – Cracknell – Moore
Engvall – Jooris – Greening
Clark – Piccinich

Defensemen
Rosen – Liljegren
Borgman – LoVerde
Sproul – Subban
Nielsen

Goaltenders
Kaskisuo
Glass


Game Highlights


Post-Game: Sheldon Keefe