Over the past week, the Toronto Maple Leafs, AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies gained five of six possible points. How did they do it?
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Game One: Rochester Americans 2 – Marlies 1
There were a couple of lineup notes to start this game. With the Maple Leafs running short of defensemen, they had called up Maxime Lajoie and Marshall Rifai. That left the Marlies short two players on the backend. As a result, the Marlies had two new defensemen in their lineup. They were Jonny Tychonick and Matt Anderson. Tychonick signed an AHL contract with the Marlies in March of 2023 and was playing for the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL. Anderson had been signed to a PTO on February 18th of this year.
The 23-year-old Tychonick was the Ottawa Senators’ 2018 second-round draft pick but was never signed by the Sens. The six-foot 185-pound lefthander from Calgary Alberta had played 45 games with the Growlers this season scoring six goals and adding 35 assists for 41 points. He was chosen to be part of the 2023-24 ECHL All-Star game.
The 24-year-old Anderson was never drafted in the NHL and was playing with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL before signing the PTO with the Marlies. The 5-foot-11 and 200-pound lefty had 14 goals and 49 points in 103 games in the ECHL over the past two seasons.
Head Coach John Gruden Put His Team’s Lineup in a Blender
With the Marlies only managing to score seven goals in the last three games, Head Coach John Gruden decided to put the lines in a blender to start this game. The changes worked to a certain point, but they also didn’t work. The Marlies were the dominant team in this game. They outshot the Americans by a whopping 53 to 26. I had the prime scoring chances at 16 to 8 for Toronto. However, they were only able to get one shot past Rochester goalie Devon Levi.
That goal was started by newcomer Anderson when he pinched to keep a puck in the Americans’ zone and bumped it up to Kieffer Bellows along the boards to the left of Levi. Bellows found Dylan Gambrell alone in front of Levi. Gambrell went from his forehand to his backhand before flipping the puck over a sprawling Levi to give the Marlies a 1-0 lead at 11:13 of the first period.
The Americans would tie the game up on the power play early in the second period. Dennis Hildeby would get a piece of a one-timer by Mason Jobst in the slot between the two faceoff circles but not enough of it as it fluttered by him into the net.
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The Marlies Simply Could Not Beat Devon Levi
Despite the Marlies firing 40 shots at Levi in the last two periods and overtime and out-chancing Rochester 12-3 the rest of the way, Toronto could not beat Levi again. The score remained 1-1 until 4:41 of overtime.
In the overtime, the Marlies had four excellent chances to end the game. Twice Levi stoned Joseph Blandisi on what looked like sure goals. However, a turnover by a tired Blandisi after missing one of those chances ultimately decided the game. Blandisi put the puck right onto Rochester defenseman Jeremy Davies’ stick in the Marlies’ zone. Hildeby had no chance to react on the play before the puck was by him.
The Marlies blew a chance to move ahead of the Americans into fourth place in the North Division.
Game Two: Marlies 4, Laval Rocket 1
This can be a funny game at times. After losing to the Rochester Americans in a game they should have won the Marlies were severely outplayed in this game by the Rocket. However, because of a stellar performance by Joseph Woll, they came away with the win.
It was obvious right from the get-go these two teams did not like each other. There were 25 penalties called in this game, twelve of them for roughing. There were scrums galore in the game. It seemed like something was happening after each whistle.
The second period saw a constant parade to the penalty box. The officials spent a lot of time breaking up the scrums and sorting out who to call for what. The period took almost a full hour to play. The first 15 minutes were played mostly with the Rocket on the power play and the last five minutes with the Marlies having the man advantage.
Despite the Penalties, Few Goals Were Scored
The amazing thing was that, despite all the penalties, no goals were scored in the second period. Both teams were perfect on the penalty kill in the middle stanza. By my calculations, there were a total of twelve dangerous scoring chances in the second period. Eleven of them were on the power play.
Despite no power plays being scored in the second, four of the five goals scored in the game were on the power play. The teams each scored on the power play in the first period and the Marlies added two goals with the man advantage in the third period. The fifth goal was scored into the empty net.
The official scoresheet had the Marlies with three power-play goals on five chances. The Rocket scored just one power-play goal on a total of nine attempts.
Joseph Woll was the difference in this game. He stopped 36 of 37 shots he faced in the game. He was phenomenal in the second period. Of the twelve dangerous scoring chances in the second period, ten of them were by the Rocket. Nine of these were on the power play. Woll stopped them all.
Joseph Blandisi was the Marlies’ best skater in the game. He scored a hat trick. Logan Shaw scored the other Toronto goal.
Game Three: Marlies 5, Laval Rocket 1
The Marlies and the Rocket have played three back-to-back games this season. The teams split the first two with a win each. For the first time in 2023-24, the Marlies won both halves of the back-to-back. The two teams managed to stick to playing hockey in this game, but there was still some chippiness. The number of power-play opportunities was exactly half (7) in this game as there was in the previous contest (14).
The Marlies continued their stellar play when down a man. They went a perfect three-for-three on the penalty kill. Over the two games, Toronto only allowed one power-play goal against in twelve shorthanded situations. After going three for five with the man advantage in game one, the Marlies scored twice on five power-play chances in this game.
Kieffer Bellows opened and closed the scoring in the game while Nick Abruzzese, Joseph Blandisi, and Josiah Slavin added singles. Dennis Hildeby stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced in the game.
Marlies Pick Up Five Of Six Points
It was a successful week for the Marlies. The AHL team won five of a possible six points in the three games. The four points they picked up against the Rocket increased their lead over Laval to five points in a battle for the last playoff spot in the North Division. They finished the week tied for fourth place with the Rochester Americans with a game in hand. The 46 points they have is one point less than the third-place Belleville Senators. They hold two games in hand over the Sens.
Great Goaltending
The Marlies got great goaltending from Dennis Hildeby and Joseph Woll this week. Hildeby gave up three goals on 49 shots while raising his record to 13-7-5. His Save Percentage for the season sits at 0.915, while his Goals-Against-Average is 2.28 GAA.
Woll, playing his first game since he suffered a high ankle sprain on December 7th was excellent. He allowed one goal on 37 shots to post a 0.972% Save Percentage.
Skater Stats
Joseph Blandisi led the way with four goals and an assist for a total of five points in the three games. Blandisi takes over sole possession of first place in overall scoring for the Marlies with 45 points in 48 games played. He is fourth in goals for the Marlies with 18, three fewer than Kieffer Bellows (21), two behind Logan Shaw (20), and one behind Alex Steeves (19).
Five Marlies skaters scored three points this week. They were Bellows (2G, 1A), Shaw (!G, 2A), Nick Abruzzese (1G, 2A), William Villeneuve (3A), and newcomer Matt Anderson (3A).
What’s Next?
The Marlies play three more games against divisional rivals this coming week. On Wednesday they are in Cleveland to take on the first-place Monsters. They then play the second-place Syracuse Crunch in a home-and-home series on Friday and Saturday. They play in Syracuse at 7:00 pm on Friday. Finally, they return to Toronto to play their second game at 4:00 pm on Saturday.
The Marlies trail the Crunch by five points.
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