Marlies Weekly Report: Marlies Losing Streak Now 7 Games

By Stan Smith

It was not a good week for the Toronto Marlies. They played three games and lost them all.

Cleveland Monsters 2 – Marlies 1

The Cleveland Monsters are the class of the North Division. There is a reason why they hold a nine-point lead over the second-place Syracuse Crunch. The Marlies had met the Monsters three times previously this season and lost all three games. Cleveland won each game by just one goal, but in those games, they were the better team, and goaltending kept the Marlies in each game.

This game started differently as the Marlies dominated the first period. They outshot the Monsters 11-5 in the period. But what was most impressive for the Marlies is that all five of Cleveland’s shots came on the power play. At even strength, the Monsters did not register a single shot on goal.

Unfortunately for the Marlies, they were unable to capitalize on any of the shots or scoring chances they had in the period.

The second period started as the first period ended, with the Marlies once again taking it to the Monsters. That led to Jake Gaudette taking a tripping penalty on Max Ellis at 3:08 of the period.

On the power play, Kyle Clifford was battling two Cleveland players behind the Monsters’ net and knocked the puck free to Dylan Gambrell. Gambrell attempted a pass out front to Kieffer Bellows. The puck would bounce off the skate of a Cleveland defender right back to Gambrell as he was making his way to the front of the net. Gambrell would corral the puck, pivot, and fire it over goaltender Jet Greaves’ right shoulder to open the scoring.

The lead would last just over three minutes for Toronto. Marlie defenseman Matteo Pietroniro joined a rush and carried the puck into the Cleveland zone. But, he attempted a cross-ice pass to Bellows that was picked off by Luca Del Bel Belluz. Del Bel Belluz upped the puck to Carson Meyer sending him in one-on-one against Tommy Miller. Meyer would fire a wrist shot just inside of the Toronto blue line that looked like it went right through the glove of Marlies’ goalie Keith Petruzzelli into the net. The replay showed Petruzzelli got the tip of the glove’s webbing on the puck but it wasn’t enough to stop it.

Later in the second period, Gambrell would get the puck past Greaves, but a Cleveland defender would get his stick on it before it crossed the goal line. Then Clifford would find himself with a wide open net on a rebound but the puck would bounce over his stick out of danger. Those two close calls would come back to haunt the Marlies later in the game.

The Marlies would outshoot the Monsters 16-11 in the period to give them a shot advantage of 27-16 over two periods.

While the first period was the best period Toronto has played against Cleveland this season, the third period was by far the worst. They did not register their first shot on goal until almost the ten-minute mark of the period. The Marlies would get credit for only three shots on net in the third. I say “credited” because I only saw one, and it was not a dangerous one.

The winning goal for Cleveland would come off of a turnover by Topi Niemela behind the Toronto goal. Niemela would fan on an attempted pass around the boards behind Petruzzelli and the puck ended up on the stick of Roman Ahcan. Ahcan would find Cameron Butler alone in front of the net. Petruzzelli would make a sprawling save on Butler, but the rebound went right to Jake Gaudet. With Petruzzelli down and out, Gaudet had nothing but the net to shoot at.

The Monsters would throw a blanket over the Marlies for the remainder of the period and pick up their fourth win over Toronto this season.

Syracuse Crunch 6 – Marlies 3

Syracuse had the better scoring chances in the first period of this game but Marlies goalie Keith Petruzzelli was the better of the two goalies as the Marlies came out of the first period with a 2-1 lead.

Joseph Blandisi got the Marlies on the board after Ryan Tverberg won a faceoff directly back to him in the Syracuse zone. Blandis let rip a wrist shot from the faceoff circle to the left of Crunch goalie Matt Tomkins and beat him on the stick side at 6:43 of the first period.

Kieffer Bellows, now with the Toronto Maple Leafs

After Kieffer Bellows took a hooking penalty at 13:30 of the period the Crunch capitalized on the power play. On the goal, a wrist shot from the point by Gage Goncalves was first tipped by Joe Carroll in one direction and then tipped again by Gabriel Dumont in another direction past Petruzzelli into the net.

The Marlies would retake the lead on a power play of their own after Devante Stephens took a tripping penalty late in the first. With one second left on the power play, Nick Abruzzese would one-time a pass from Alex Steeves past Tomkins from the face-off dot to the left of the Syracuse goalie with just one second left on the power play.

Despite the shots being 9-7 in favour of the Marlies in the first period, Syracuse had the better scoring chances. All seven of their shots were of the High Danger calibre.

Toronto fired 10 shots at the Tomkins before the Crunch got their first shot on the net in the second period. Unfortunately for Toronto, Tomkins stopped all 10 of the shots and Syracuse scored on their one shot on a goal I am sure Petruzzelli would like to have back. It was a clear, non-screened shot from the face-off dot to the left of Petruzzelli by Jack Finley that went between Petruzzelli’s right arm and leg. Petruzzelli was square to the shooter on the shot. He just missed it.

The Marlies carried the play for most of the second and outshot the Crunch 21-9 in the period but failed to beat Tomkins.

Joe Carroll would score two goals in 1:36 early in the third period to put Syracuse up 4-2. Bellows would draw the Marlies to within one when he accepted a pass from Tverberg at the Syracuse blue line, took a couple of strides into the zone and fired a shot that Tomkins missed glove-side at 14:13 of the third. The Crunch would restore the two-goal lead just 1:40 later when Cole Koepke beat Marshall Rifai to a puck in the Toronto zone in between the face-off dots and one-time it past Petruzzelli in one motion. Koepke would add an empty-net goal with six seconds left in the game to finish out the scoring.

After blowing a 2-1 first period and going into the third tied at two, the Marlies would give up four goals in the third period to lose their sixth game in a row.

Syracuse Crunch 4 – Marlies 3 Overtime

In the Sunday rematch the Syracuse Crunch would pick up where they left off in the third period by scoring two goals on their first three shots in the game.

Waltteri Merela would open the scoring for the Crunch after walking around Kyle Clifford after Max Lajoie and Topi Niemela both got caught up the ice. Merela would beat Marlies starter Luke Cavallin’s glove side at 3:48 if the first. They would add to the lead a little less than five minutes later when Maxim Groshev was allowed to walk out of the corner to the left of Cavallin. Groshev was surrounded by Joe Blandisi, Ryen Tverberg, Kieffer Bellows and Max Lajoie when he let a shot go from the face-off dot that trickled through Cavallin into the net.

Toronto outplayed Syracuse for most of the first period and outshot them 12-6 but would go into the first intermission down 2-0.

One oddity in the period was a three-man breakaway by Logan Shaw, Alex Steeves, and Blandisi that failed to score when Crunch goalie Hugo Alnefelt stopped a Steeves’ shot. I don’t recall seeing a three-man breakaway before.

Bellows scored goals at 11:01 and 17:33 of the second period to tie the game at two. After giving up six goals in the previous two periods to the Crunch the Marlies would not only shut Syracuse out in the second period, they would limit the Crunch to just two shots. Toronto managed just six shots themselves but would score on two of those shots.

As they did in the Saturday game, the Marlies and the Crunch would go into the third period tied 2-2.

Toronto started the 3rd with 1:26 left on the power play from a hooking penalty on Syracuse’s Merela with 34 seconds left in the second and had three shots on net with the man advantage but would fail to score. Once Merela’s penalty expired the next six minutes were spent almost exclusively in the Toronto zone. The Crunch had the next six shots on goal and ended up beating Cavallin to go up 3-2 with just eight seconds left on a power play of their own after Ryan Tverberg took a two-minute tripping penalty at 8:41 of the period. Joe Carrol, who was the Marlies’ killer on Saturday with two goals in the third period, did it again. This time he cashed in on a rebound of a Gage Goncalves shot.

That goal seemed to ignite the Marlies as they would take over the play following the Syracuse goal. At the 12:50 mark of the period, Gabriel Fortier took a high-sticking penalty giving the Marlies another chance with the extra attacker. This time they would be successful on the power play as Steeve’s one-timed a set-up pass from Niemela past Alnefelt.

That would conclude the scoring in regulation and the two teams went to overtime. At the 2:49 mark of the OT, Logan Shaw won, but lost, a faceoff in the Toronto end. Shaw got his stick on the puck and drew it back toward Cavallin. But, Carroll once again killed Toronto as he stepped forward and batted the puck past Cavallin.

That was Carroll’s fourth goal in either the third period or overtime in the two games.

With the seven-game losing streak the Marlies have fallen to fifth place in the AHL’s North Division two points behind the fourth-place Rochester Americans and only one point up on the sixth-place Laval Rocket.

Individual Performances

The top scorer for the Marlies over the three games was Kieffer Bellows with three goals. Ryan Tverberg also had three points, all assists. Joe Blandisi and Alex Steeves both had a goal and an assist. Topi Niemela had two assists.

Keith Petruzzelli took two losses while allowing seven goals on 51 shots and posting a 0.862% Save Percentage. In ten games this season, Petruzzelli’s record is 4-5-1 with a 0.875% Save Percentage and a 3:35 Goals-Against-Average.

Luke Cavallin stopped 17 of 21 shots to post a 0.809% Save Percentage. In his first two AHL starts, Cavallin has a 0-1-1 record with a 3.47 Goals-Against-Average and a 0.837% Save Percentage.

After a streak that saw him score 11 goals and 22 points on a 16-game scoring streak, Steeves has cooled off. He has just one goal and two assists in his last seven games. Despite his recent slowdown, Steeves is still the team’s top point-getter with 27 points in 26 games.

Despite not yet having a contract, Bellows has taken over the team lead in goals with 14 in 24 games.

Blandisi, with 25 points, Abruzzese with 24, and Bellows with 23 are second through fourth in Marlies’ overall scoring.

What’s Next?

The Marlies play just two games this week, a home and home with the Belleville Senators. The first game takes place in Toronto at 7:00 pm on Friday. The second game is in Belleville on Sunday at 2:00 pm. Toronto then has five days off before heading out on an eight-game road trip.

Note on Bellows: I read that after a player has played 25 games on a PTO they either have to be signed or released. Bellows will play his 25th game on Friday night. It would seem strange if Toronto did not sign their leading Marlies goal-scorer.

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