“I didn’t like the way we played. I’m not very happy with the way we responded in the third period. We had a commanding 2-0 lead and were playing extremely well. For whatever reason, we thought we would do our own thing out there and freelance a little bit, and it bit us in the butt.
It’s not even our young guys. It’s our older guys who have the ability to stop it. I don’t think we did a very good job. It starts with me. I’ll take responsibility for that.
If we want to get serious about how good we think we could be, we’ve got to close games like that out. End of story.”
– John Gruden
“It just can’t happen. Good teams find a way to close it out, whether they’re playing a good game or not. We had control of that game, and then maybe we tried to play a little too cute.”
– Logan Shaw
For the fourth time in five games, the Toronto Marlies gave up the lead and paid the ultimate price with a regulation loss against Hershey on Wednesday. The Marlies have let five points slip through their fingers in that span and gifted their division rivals five points in the process.
Hershey has struggled for offense all season. The Marlies eased off the gas and lost their structure, allowing three unanswered goals in 14 minutes, en route to a 3-2 loss.
First Period
The Marlies should have grabbed control of the game inside the opening four minutes. Chances for Cédric Paré (x2), Borya Valis, and Bo Groulx were not converted as Hershey survived the early push.
Although Toronto recorded 17 shots on net in the opening frame, Clay Stevenson wasn’t overly tested after the initial flurry, except for a late drive to the net by Ben King. The Marlies were guilty of throwing pucks toward the goal with little traffic, making life too easy for the Bears’ netminder.
Dennis Hildeby didn’t have to break a sweat at the other end of the ice, making seven saves, none of which really troubled him.
Second Period
After an excellent early penalty kill, Toronto struck at the eight-minute mark. Cade Webber jumped in down the left side of the offensive zone and pulled up, creating some space and options, and found Paré at the top of the zone. The big centerman picked out Luke Haymes low in the right circle, where the rookie forward beat Stevenson with a nice one-time finish.
The Marlies were guilty of easing off the gas a little after the goal, presenting Hershey with two high-danger chances. Hildeby stopped Alex Suzdalev on a partial breakaway, and Ivan Miroshnichenko struck the post after Logan Shaw handed him the puck in the slot.
After the wake-up call, the Marlies drew consecutive penalties, and on the second power play, Alex Nylander took matters into his own hands. After making a move to create some space in the right circle, Nylander fired a shot that found its way through Stevenson’s gear to open up a 2-0 lead.
The tide began to turn when Bo Groulx took an avoidable goaltender interference penalty with three minutes remaining. Toronto’s penalty kill was keeping Hershey at bay until Reece Johnson attempted to hold onto the puck instead of dumping it deep, resulting in 40 seconds of Hershey pressure. With a handful of seconds left in the kill, Miroshnichenko found the net with a seeing-eye shot through traffic from the left circle.
King offered a late response for Toronto with a surging drive toward the net in the dying seconds. He couldn’t get enough on his shot due to a hook, but the officials looked the other way.
Third Period
Quillan, Haymes, and Marc Johnstone had Grade-A scoring chances in the opening eight minutes, but it was an otherwise sloppy start to the third period. Hershey made Toronto pay for their subpar approach to the final frame, striking twice inside two minutes.
At the midway mark, the Marlies took another needless infraction but switched off during the delayed portion of the penalty. Miroshnichenko was in alone on goal, and while Hildeby made the first save, the Toronto netminder couldn’t do much about Ilya Protas tying the game at 2-2.
The eventual game-winner encapsulated how far off the mark the Marlies were. Brett Leason won a faceoff back to Corey Schueneman, who sent a slap pass into the slot, where Miroshnichenko tipped it home, with the Marlies late to react to a set faceoff play.
The lack of a response from Toronto was notable as Hershey coasted to victory. Only a snapshot by Ryan Tverberg tested Stevenson as the netminder turned aside 16 shots in the final frame, only four of which caused him any trouble.
Post Game Notes
– Luke Haymes was one of the few bright spots for the Marlies with a two-point haul (1G/1A) and the drawn penalty leading to the second goal. The rookie is finding his footing offensively with four goals in his last five games, taking his season total to nine goals and 19 points in 45 games.
– In just his second appearance for the Marlies, 23-year-old Ben King made a strong impression with a solid performance. The 6’3 right-shot forward, a former fourth-round pick of the Ducks in 2022, made simple, high-percentage plays, was solid defensively, and had a handful of promising moments offensively.
– Michael Pezzetta left the game with what appeared to be a lower-body injury in the third period.
– Wednesday’s lineup:
Forwards
Groulx – Shaw – Tverberg
Nylander – Quillan – Valis
Paré – Haymes – King
Pezzetta – Johnstone – Johnson
Defensemen
Mermis – Rifai
Smith – Sharpe
Webber – Chadwick
Goaltenders
Hildeby
Akhtyamov
