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Toronto’s recent run of poor form continued in Syracuse, where they slipped to a fifth defeat in the span of 12 days on Wednesday night.

The Marlies only had themselves to blame in this one — they gave a talented Crunch outfit a host of excellent scoring opportunities off the rush and came out on the wrong end of a fast-paced, high-scoring game.

First Period

Michael Peca should have put the Crunch ahead inside two minutes, but Garret Sparks bailed out his teammates on an odd-man rush.

The goaltender was rewarded immediately as Toronto tallied first — on a fast break up the middle, Andreas Johnsson applied the finish from the slot on a feed from Kasperi Kapanen.

The lead barely lasted a minute thanks to some brainless play from Toronto. Justin Holl led a rush across the Syracuse blue line, but his pass was behind every Marlies player and Syracuse broke the other way with numbers.

Andrew Nielsen didn’t seem to know which way to turn as the last man — only succeeding in stumbling twice before falling over — and the Crunch capitalized on a breakaway for Dennis Yan.

Toronto regained some composure to kill off the first penalty of the game, but more sloppy play saw them fall behind 2-1 at the midway point.

The Marlies‘ backtracking forwards didn’t dig in deeply enough, allowing the Crunch to outnumber the Holl-Nielsen pairing off the rush and finish off a backdoor pass to Yan for his second of the game.

Syracuse was pressing for an insurance marker before Dmytro Timashov cleverly generated a turnover as the lone man in on the forecheck, cutting out a pass before picking out Chris Mueller nicely in front to level the score at 2-2.

The Marlies nearly grabbed the lead before the intermission but ended up trailing after another odd-man rush for Syracuse. A blast from Michael Paliotta hit the crossbar before Paliotta turned it over at the blue line and the Crunch broke on a 2v1 — this time, Mathieu Joseph made no mistake on a feed from Peca to put Syracuse up 3-2 through 20 minutes.

Second Period

Toronto responded with their best hockey of the game early in the middle frame. A tying goal arrived inside the opening two minutes after Frederik Gauthier deftly finished off a pretty passing movement involving Colin Greening and Kerby Rychel.

The Marlies generated a host of excellent chances throughout the second period, including on the power play, but weren’t able to capitalize, including a post for Gauthier.

The officials’ whistles were away until the final five minutes of the period, and Syracuse made their second power play of the game count. With the Marlies outnumbered at the net front, Kevin Lynch netted his team’s fourth of the game with a tap-in.

Toronto certainly didn’t deserve to enter the final frame trailing and they responded with a tying goal 26 seconds later. A long outlet pass from Johnsson sent Kapanen away, but his shot was turned aside by Louis Domingue. The attempted clearance by the Crunch fell straight to Miro Aaltonen, who scored his fifth of the year in his return to action following a two-game suspension.

Third Period

In need of a big response to avoid consecutive defeats, Toronto got off to the worst possible start to the third period.

After Erik Condra was denied by Sparks, Syracuse scored their second power-play goal of the game through Adam Erne. The initial tripping call leading to the power play was debatable and the Marlies were further incensed after the goal, with the players upset about a possible missed call just beforehand.

Toronto rarely looked likely to tie the game for the fourth time, only recording their first shot of the period with eight minutes remaining.

With Sparks pulled for the extra attacker with over two minutes left on the clock, Toronto was able to exert some pressure on Syracuse, but it was too little, too late as the Crunch held on to record a second straight victory against the Marlies.


Post Game Notes

– The Marlies have now lost five of their last six games and are now tied with Rochester for the North Division lead. This was the third time in five games that Toronto has allowed five goals against.

“There have definitely been some trends,” said Sheldon Keefe. “Our penalty kill hasn’t been nearly as effective and that’s been a big factor for our success. We gave up two today and we didn’t get any on the power play.”

“We’re giving up way too many grade-A scoring chances. We knew coming into this game that they could really skate and we had to be really diligent with the puck with our reads, and we failed to do that in the first period. Offensively, we were able to capitalize on some chances on the rush today but we aren’t generating nearly enough in the offensive zone.”

– Eight Toronto players recorded a single point: Johnsson, Gauthier, Mueller, Timashov, Aaltonen, Greening, Rychel and Kapanen.

Kasperi Kapanen has at least a point in each of his last four games (2-3-5) with the Marlies after assisting on the opening goal.

“Today, I thought that [Johnsson-Aaltonen-Kapanen] line was the only one that was going,” said Keefe. “When we put them on the ice, good things were happening for us. I thought we chased the game probably with the rest of our lineup.”

“It’s one of those things where on a night like today you’re thinking of spreading them out so they can get some help on their lines, but things were going well and they were scoring for us. We like our depth, but I didn’t think we brought it here today.”

Garret Sparks made his first appearance since December 16. Five goals against wasn’t a fair reflection of his play, and the good news is that he appeared 100% healthy after injury and illness had kept him out of the line-up. This was the first time this season he’s given up more than three goals.

– Wednesday lines:

Forwards
Johnsson-Aaltonen-Kapanen
Timashov-Mueller-Smith
Rychel-Gauthier-Greening
Moore-Dupuy-Dzierkals

Defencemen
Valiev-LoVerde
Rosen-Paliotta
Nielsen-Holl

Goaltenders
Sparks
Pickard


Game Highlights


Post-Game: Sheldon Keefe