By Stan Smith
Usually, three points in three games, which is a .500 record, is not considered a good thing. But, with the way this week started and the fact that one of the games was against the best team in the league (the 38-9 Hershey Bears), it was not a bad week.
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Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 6 – Marlies 1
This was one of the worst games of the season for the Marlies. Their decision-making with the puck was horrible. They had numerous situations where a player was in a position to shoot the puck but they passed instead. When they did attempt to shoot the puck, it was usually through an opposition player. The result was that the shot was blocked or deflected harmlessly away from the net.
The Marlies were outshot 21-10 in the first 40 minutes of the game. However, they were lucky enough to be just down 2-1. The Penguins blew the game open with four goals in the third period. One of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s six goals was into an empty net after Toronto pulled Kieth Petruzzelli with over three minutes left in the game down 4-1. Three of the five goals the Penguins scored were not great goals for Petruzzelli. They were on clear unscreened shots that beat him cleanly.
After only managing three shots in the first period and allowing just one goal, Dylan Gambrell got the Marlies on the board at 1:05 of the second period. Kyle Clifford found him back door behind Penguins goalie Joel Blomqvist. That was as close as the Marlies would come in the contest.
The shots in the game were 32-17 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Marlies 4 – Belleville Senators 3
The one thing that was obvious when this game started was the instructions from Head Coach John Gruden were for the Marlies to shoot more. They were putting everything on the net every chance they got. Toronto outshot Belleville 14-7 in the first scoreless first period. However, they didn’t generate much in the line of really good scoring chances. I had the scoring chances even at 2-2 in the period.
Things opened up in the second period. There were 32 shots fired by both teams (18 for the Marlies and 14 for the Senators) and five goals were scored in the middle stanza.
Specialty teams played a big role in this game. Each team scored twice on the power play and each team scored another goal just after the power play ended. The Senators went up 2-0 on goals by Tyler Kleven and Rourke Chartier. Three consecutive goals by Alex Steeves, Zach Solow, and Joseph Blandisi in the last seven and half minutes of the second put the Marlies up 3-2 going into the third period.
Angus Crookshank tied the game up on the power play at 8:08 of the third period. Kieffer Bellows put the Marlies back up to stay when he beat Senators goalie Kevin Mandolese with a wrist shot one second after the expiration of an Ottawa penalty.
The Marlies held on to win the game 4-3. This was an important divisional win for Toronto and was your prototypical four-point game. The win helped the Marlies move into a tie with the Senators for fourth place in the North Division. With a loss, they would have been four points behind them
There was an incident late in the second period that if I was doing a good, bad, and ugly report like I do for the Toronto Maple Leafs games I would have classified as ugly. After Solow scored to tie the game at two at 17:33 of the second period Kleven crosschecked Solow hard into the boards behind the Senators’ net well after the play had finished. Josiah Slavin came in and jumped Kleven. A massive scrum followed with all ten skaters on the ice involved.
Five minor penalties were called, three of them going to Belleville. These included a crosscheck and roughing on Kleven. Kleven was lucky he didn’t get five and a game on the play. When I watch games on AHLTV I usually have to listen to the home team’s broadcast crew. I couldn’t believe the Senators’ announcers blamed the incident on Solow because he celebrated after scoring the goal.
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Hershey Bears 3 – Marlies 2 OT
This was going to be a tough game. As I stated earlier, the Hershey Bears are the class of the AHL. They are the defending Calder Cup Champions and have a winning percentage this season of just under .800%.
The first period was scoreless and was closely played. The shots in the period were 8-6 Hershey and I had good scoring chances at 4-3 Bears. The Marlies held the Bears without a shot for the first 9:30 of the second period. Unfortunately for Toronto, the Bears scored on their first shot.
After a dump-in by the Bears, Luke Cavallin came out of the goal and played the puck to Tommy Miller. Miller attempted to pass up ice hit the Bears’ Henrick Rybinski’s stick and went right to Matt Strome. Before Cavallin had a chance to get back into his net and get set, the puck was in the net. This was not a case of Cavallin misplaying the puck and being out of position. This was more of a case of Miller trying to make a dangerous play instead of taking the safer route.
The Bears would take a 2-0 lead just 1:17 into the third period on the power play. Miller blocked a shot by Mike Vecchione but the puck rebounded off of Miller right to Alex Limoges. Limoges was able to fire the puck into the goal before Cavallin could react to it. Once again Cavallin had no chance on the goal.
The Marlies would come to life just past the halfway point of the period. Goals by Joseph Blandisi and Dylan Gambrell 1:36 apart would tie the game and send it into overtime. Both teams had good chances to finish the game in an exciting extra period. It was Garret Roe who ended it for the Bears just over three minutes into the extra frame. Roe got behind all three Marlies on the ice, took a cross-ice pass from Limoges and beat Cavallin’s blocker side before he could get over to cover the shot.
Although the Marlies have lost both games they have played against Hershey this season, they have gotten a point in each of the games. They have played the best team in the league pretty evenly twice.
After starting the week with one of their worst showings of the season the Marlies bounced back and won an important divisional game and got a point from the best team in the league. Three points in three games in this case was not a bad accomplishment.
Individual Performances
Luke Cavallin
With Hildeby up with the Maple Leafs again and Kieth Petruzzelli struggling, Luke Cavallin found himself starting a game about 18 hours after finishing a game this weekend. Cavallin got his first AHL win in Belleville on Friday night in a game that started at 7 pm and finished just before 10 pm. He then got the start against the Hershey Bears in a game that had a 4 pm start on Saturday.
Cavallin played well in both games. He wasn’t perfect, giving up three goals in each game on 61 total shots for a 0.901 Save Percentage. But, he gave the Marlies a chance to win both of these starts. In the first four starts of Cavallin’s AHL career, he has a record of 1-1-2, a Goals-Against-Average of 3.19, and a Save Percentage of 0.875.
Multipoint Skaters
There wasn’t a lot of offensive production from the Marlies skaters this week as they only scored seven goals in the three games. Joseph Blandisi and Dylan Gambrell scored two goals each. Kieffer Bellows and Alex Steeves each had a goal and an assist. William Villeneuve, Topi Niemela, and Kyle Clifford each had two assists.
Playoff Fight
The Marlies are tied for fourth place in the North Division with the Belleville Senators. Each team has 51 points, one point less than the third-place Rochester Americans. The Laval Rocket are two points behind and the Utica Comets are five points back. With both Cleveland Monsters and Syracuse Crunch locked in on top of the North Division, it leaves the other five teams fighting it out for three playoff spots.
What’s Next?
The Marlies have a chance to leapfrog the Rochester Americans into third place on Monday afternoon when they take them on in a 2 pm tilt in Toronto. The Maple Leafs have sent Dennis Hildeby back down to the Marlies and we could see him start. The Marlies will be without Marshall Rifai. He was called up because of the injury to William Lagesson.
The Marlies don’t play again until next weekend when they travel to Laval Quebec to take on the Rocket in back-to-back games. Friday’s tilt has a 7 pm start while Saturday’s game goes at 3 pm.
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