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Quick-fire double enough for Marlies to down Bingo

The Binghamton Senators may be rock bottom of the Eastern Conference, but they‘ve been far from an easy out at times this season.

Just ask the Marlies, who have fallen to defeat twice against Binghamton, most recently a 6-5 OT loss wherein recent acquisition Tobias Lindberg scored the winner for the Senators.

Coming into this encounter, the B-Sens had won four straight, outscoring opponents 14-4 in the process.

The visiting Senators weren’t in the mood for open, entertaining hockey in front of the children packed into the Ricoh for today’s school day game. It took the until seven-minute mark for the Marlies to generate a scoring chance, when William Nylander made a play to keep the puck inside the offensive zone while almost on his backside.

Quickly up on his skates, Nylander sped down the left and delivered a wonderful backhand saucer pass to Zach Hyman to the left of the net. Hyman wasted no time backhanding the puck across the crease to Kasperi Kapanen, who contrived to miss wide.

Ottawa’s affiliate opened the scoring two minutes later. After Mike Kostka found Travis Ewanyk at the bottom of the right circle, a pass looked more likely before Ewanyk fired the puck shortside on Garret Sparks from a seemingly impossible angle.

It took just 58 seconds for Toronto to tie the game. Kapanen held the puck just outside the blueline, taking a hit before Andrew Campbell made a good read to jump into the play and break the zone. Campbell dished the puck off to Nylander, who beat Matt O’Connor in a flash with a great shot. It was all about the quick release of the young Swedish forward, who scored his 17th of the season.

It seemed Binghamton’s opening goal really prodded the tiger as Toronto then took the lead just 41 seconds later. A sustained spell of puck possession in the Senators zone led to T.J Brennan firing a measured shot for Hyman to redirect in front past a helpless O’Connor.

Binghamton was handed a lifeline to recover from a quick double blow as the officials assessed Nikita Soshnikov two minutes for slashing, two more for questioning the call, and another two to Toronto’s bench for protesting. Terry Koharski was the lone referee for this encounter, and the calls came as no real surprise to those who have watched him officiate before.

The Marlies killed the two-man deficit with consummate ease, relying on one brave shot block from Hyman as well as a save from Sparks on a big shot from Michael Kostka.

On the second portion of the penalty, down by just a single man, Binghamton failed to put a shot on goal as Toronto’s penalty killers rose to the occasion.

Building momentum off successive kills, the Marlies pushed hard to increase the lead late in the period. Frederik Gauthier was impeded from a scoring position but couldn’t win a call from the official. Carrick came close on the follow-up play before Toronto earned a deserved powerplay after Michael Sdo fired the puck over the glass.

Despite copious amounts of possession set up in the B-Sens zone, Toronto were unable to really test O’Connor before the powerplay expired at the start of the second period.

The Marlies then went back to the penalty kill after Lindberg was sent to the box for hooking Sdo seconds after Sdo exited the box. Toronto again killed the penalty with ease.

It proved to be an uneventful period at even strength, with the teams sharing 15 shots and perhaps only two decent scoring chances. Kapanen showed a burst of speed that saw him drive the play from the defensive zone to the offensive zone in a flash. He mishandled in front of net before Hyman almost benefited from the broken play.

A mistake from Rinat Valiev with seven minutes to play in the middle frame put Buddy Robinson in behind Toronto’s defense. A combination of a desperate diving play from Campbell and Sparks not biting on the forward‘s moves influenced Robinson to fire wide of the net.

In the final 90 seconds, a shot from Soshnikov deflected into the path of Lindberg. With an easy tap-in chance awaiting him, the puck got caught between his skates and the chance was gone by the time he sorted his feet.

The third period was also lacking in excitement as both teams were guilty of some broken plays, with defense winning out for the most part.

Sparks had to be switched on 70 seconds in as a one-time effort from Casey Bailey tested his quickness across the net.

Turnovers presented some danger to the Marlies’ lead, but Binghamton were unable to capitalize.

With a fourth goal looking increasingly unlikely, the Senators pulled O’Connor from net for the extra attacker on an offensive faceoff with 1:12 to play. Twice Toronto iced the puck in search of the empty net goal to seal the win.

Matt Frattin was denied from scoring the insurance marker, with his effort waived off due to an offside.

The play went back the full length of the ice, but thankfully Sam Carrick won the ensuing defensive zone faceoff. After his teammates turned the puck over and won it back again quickly, Carrick fired the puck from his own goal line into the Binghamton net to secure the two points.


Post Game Notes

– Debuting today for the Marlies were Colin Smith and John Kurtz. Neither made much of an impact, but we can certainly expected better from Smith as he gets his feet wet.

Garret Sparks will probably be disappointed with the one goal he gave up, but he was solid in making 22 saves on 23 shots.

TJ Brennan’s assist was his 30th of the season, taking him to 50 points in what’s been another superlative year for him offensively.

Sam Carrick scored his sixth goal of the season in just his second game back. He was heavily leaned on late in the game by Sheldon Keefe, with his experience a key factor along with his faceoff skills.

Zach Hyman moves up to 11th in rookie scoring with his 12th goal of the season and 11th point in his last 13.

– Toronto have won four straight games, but perhaps more importantly they’ve allowed only five goals during that time as they look to play a more structured game consistently.


Game Highlights


Sheldon Keefe Post Game


Marlies Player Stats — Toronto 3 vs. Binghamton 1

PlayerPositionGA+/-SHPIM
Campbell, AndrewD01220
Brennan, T.J.D01120
Hyman, ZachRW10220
Carrick, SamC10030
Lindberg, TobiasRW00022
Gauthier, FrederikC00-120
Martin, JamesD00-110
Kolomatis, DavidD00-100
Brown, ConnorRW00100
Findlay, BrettLW00020
Smith, ColinC00000
Kurtz, JohnLW00-100
Frattin, MattRW00020
Holl, JustinD00040
Kapanen, KasperiRW01200
Valiev, RinatD01300
Nylander, WilliamC10240
Soshnikov, NikitaLW00104