The Toronto Marlies’ struggles against the St. John’s goaltending continued as the Sunday rematch game headed into the third period.
After solving Yann Danis only once the day previous, rookie netminder Charlie Lindgren performed admirably to ensure the second game of the back-to-back was scoreless with 20 minutes remaining.
Toronto’s work rate throughout the first 40 was relentless and they didn’t let up in the final frame. On the opening shift, Brooks Laich released a shot from the side of the net that produced a rebound for Trevor Moore. Lindgren made the save, but Toronto drew a penalty on the play.
On the ensuing man advantage, a shot from Andrew Nielsen hit a defenseman in front and bounced up high toward Brendan Leipsic waiting by the side of the goal. The winger skilfully batted the puck out of the air in what looked to be a certain goal if not for Lindgren’s acrobatic blocker save while diving across to his left.
Undeterred, Toronto finally broke the deadlock with 3:39 on the clock. It was the result of some old-fashioned hockey as the veteran presence of Rich Clune and Milan Michalek caused havoc in the crease, allowing a rocket of a shot from the rookie Nielsen to creep through the pads of Lindgren.
A quick second goal would have taken all the air out of the IceCaps’ sails, but the puck again didn’t quite fall for Toronto.
The new line of Leipsic-Froese-Kapanen was causing the IceCaps problems nearly every time they came into possession. During one particularly nice movement, all three forwards had chances to score in a wild scramble in front of the net before the officials blew the whistle early. Toronto kept digging, leading to roughing calls on Jeremy Gregoire and Nielsen, some 4-on-4 play, and nearly a tying goal.
A passenger for the first eight minutes of the third period, Garret Sparks needed to come up big to deny Mark Barberio from the slot. The Marlies were running around a little in their own zone as St. John’s maintained puck control, but Toronto almost made it 2-0 once they recovered possession. Dmytro Timashov drove to the net from the right wing and watched as his effort hit the far post before eluding Colin Smith on the rebound.
With a little under nine minutes to play, Nielsen came really close to scoring a carbon copy of his first goal, but Lindgren got enough of the puck to send it trickling wide of his right post.
The insurance marker eventually came for Toronto after an excellent sequence from Byron Froese.
The Marlies hemmed the IceCaps in their own zone for at least 45 seconds before losing possession. Froese had other ideas, stripping the puck from Barberio and drawing a retaliatory slash. Froese won the following faceoff back to Nielsen, who shifted to the middle of the ice before firing a wrist shot on net. Froese drove to the net and was on-hand to redirect the puck past Lindgren, doubling the home team’s advantage.
The game appeared dead and buried after that, but there was almost a sting in the Marlies‘ tail inside the final three minutes. With Laich called for slashing, the IceCaps went with six attackers and nearly benefited from the gamble. Sparks denied Jacob de la Rose and was quick on his feet to scramble the rebound away from Daniel Audette.
Sven Andrighetto was able to beat Sparks with a beauty of a shot from the top of the right circle, but the effort found the crossbar. Seconds later, Andrighetto was frustrated again as Viktor Loov bravely blocked a ferocious shot with his hand.
That was as close as the IceCaps came to threatening Sparks’ shutout bid. With Lindgren on the bench, Toronto sealed the deal with an empty-net goal. Leipsic’s hard work finally paid off as he was able to skate the puck into the yawning cage after taking a good pass from Froese.
The game finished with some shenanigans instigated by Bobby Farnham with 14 seconds remaining. Despite Toronto somehow ending up with a seven-minute penalty kill, there was no time left for further drama.
Sparks may not have had to work hard for his shutout in terms of quantity of shots faced, but he was called on early in proceedings as the IceCaps generated a couple of chances at the start of the first period.
A 3-on-1 break for the IceCaps resulted in Markus Eisenschmid firing a shot destined for the top shelf if not for the blocker of Sparks. The goaltender also had to turn aside Andrighetto and Tom Parisi as St. John’s controlled the first two minutes of play.
A big hit from Rich Clune behind the IceCaps net changed the momentum and generated a turnover for the Marlies. William Wrenn pinched in on the play, but couldn’t beat Lindgren with a low shot.
On the following shift, Kapanen showcased his electrifying speed but was denied by a trailing defenseman and an excellent poke check from Lindgren.
Andrighetto was then guilty of lifting a backhand shot wide of Sparks’ left post from a promising position, although his team earned the first powerplay of the game on the play. It didn’t last for long thanks to the brilliance of Kapanen, who drew a penalty off of Barberio.
After killing full powerplay just before the midway mark of the opening period, the Marlies came close to finding a way past Lindgren back at even strength as Wrenn and Smith combined to tee up Kerby Rychel. Despite scoring a pair of goals to finally open his account last weekend, the winger has largely been luckless in the first five weeks of his Toronto career. Rychel watched as his effort rang off the far post and failed to cross the goal line despite hitting the backside of Lindgren on the ricochet.
After Eisenshmid and Farnham couldn’t capialize on a 3-on-2 rush late in the first period thanks in part to Sparks, scoring chances for the IceCaps were few and far between throughout the rest of the game.
Gauthier’s new line alongside Clune and Timashov drove the early play of the middle frame, but Lindgren stood tall to deny the best effort from Clune.
St. John’s then came close with three quick efforts on net before the rest of the period was dominated by the Marlies, who weren’t able to turn their possession into many scoring chances in the middle frame. Their best chance was the result of Leipsic and Kapanen combining but Lindgren robbed Kapanen with a tremendous glove save.
Kapanen impressed further by single-handedly killing a minute of a St. John’s powerplay with seven minutes remaining in the middle frame, creating a shorthanded chance for himself in the process.
Toronto may have had to wait until the third period to break down St. John’s, but they were full value for the bounceback 3-0 victory.
Post Game Notes
– Garret Sparks made 19 saves for his shutout. He misplayed the puck a few times and gave up a few too many rebounds, but this was a decent performance in his first outing in two weeks.
– The Marlies limited the IceCaps to fewer than 20 shots in both games over the weekend and gave up just six shots in the two third periods combined. That’s a positive for a team that head coach Sheldon Keefe has suggested will not be as gifted offensively compared to last season and therefore will need to be better defensively.
“Maybe even our whole team has played better than some of the statistics show for guys in terms of goals and assists. It’s a little bit of what I kind of thought was going to be the case for our team — that offense was going to be a little bit harder to come by, that we’re going to have to be better defensively, give up less and win games a little bit differently. That’s what’s happening right now.”
– A goal and an assist for Andrew Nielsen breaks a three-game pointless streak. There’s still much work to be done on the defensive aspect of his game and he needs to cut out the habit of turning pucks over in his own zone, but 11 points in 14 games (second among first-year defencemen) is quite the start to a rookie AHL campaign.
– Two points for Byron Froese brings him up to seven goals and 10 points in 14 games. He played a strong game between new linemates Brendan Leipsic and Kasperi Kapanen.
– A line that has been something of a constant over the past few weeks, Keefe praised the the Rychel, Smith and Johnsson trio after the game: “I think they’ve been really good. Almost every game we’ve played in the past few weeks, they’re leading our team in scoring chances. They’re on offense a lot. They’re buzzing around the net. They haven’t been rewarded for it a great deal… but that line has been good for us.”
– Brendan Leipsic’s late goal extends his point streak to seven games. It also fires him back to the top of the AHL’s scoring charts with 19 points in 14 appearances.
– A special mention to Rich Clune: He’s been out of the line-up since October 29 but has not sulked about the situation. He was a constant thorn in the side of St. John’s and fired up his teammates with some big hits and strong play generally. He was excellent on the penalty kill to boot. He’s made it difficult for Sheldon Keefe to drop him for Tuesday’s game versus Albany.
– Frederik Gauthier appeared to hurt his arm — possibly his wrist — early in the second period. He headed for the tunnel and did not return for the rest of the game.
Game Highlights
Marlies 3 vs. IceCaps 0 – Game Sheet
| SKATER | POS | G | A | PIM | Shots | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell, Andrew | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Valiev, Rinat | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Holl, Justin | D | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Loov, Viktor | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Nielsen, Andrew | D | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Wrenn, William | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Smith, Colin | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Froese, Byron | C | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Johnsson, Andreas | LW | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Clune, Richard | LW | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| Michalek, Milan | LW | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Leipsic, Brendan | LW | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Laich, Brooks | C | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Kapanen, Kasperi | RW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Gauthier, Frederik | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rychel, Kerby | LW | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 0 |
| Timashov, Dmytro | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Moore, Trevor | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
