The Toronto Marlies five-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt with a disjointed display on home ice against the Utica Comets.
The Marlies are now 18-12-1 on home ice, compared to 26-5-1 away from the Ricoh Coliseum.
First Period
The Marlies were on top for the opening 15 minutes of the game without anything to show for their dominance in possession, offensive-zone time, and shots on net.
Following Utica’s best shift of the first period, Toronto finally broke the deadlock at the 16-minute mark.
Kyle Baun’s shot from the right circle, and the follow-up from Miro Aaltonen on the initial rebound, were turned aside by Thatcher Demko. The second save from Utica’s netminder sent a rebound out to his right, where Mason Marchment was on hand to celebrate his new NHL contract with his 10th goal of the season.
The game quickly turned on its head after that as the Comets struck back twice in an 18-second span. Toronto was caught puck watching as a shot from Guillaume Brisebois flew wide of the net before taking a kind bounce off the end-boards and into the wheelhouse of Tanner MacMaster for his first of the season.
Lapses in concentration and missed assignments were again the story as Zack MacEwen was allowed to pounce on a broken play between the hash marks to fire home past a frustrated Pickard with two-and-a-half minutes remaining.
Second Period
Looking to respond early in the middle frame, Trevor Moore and Miro Aaltonen came within a whisker of combining for a second Marlies goal.
Aaltonen was up-ended on the same shift without a call from the officials, who called a iffy game, with both teams on the wrong end of poor decisions and almost every faceoff resulting in a player waived out of the circle.
The Marlies were guilty of being a little too cute on a power play three minutes in, with the best chance falling to Ben Smith, whose effort drifted wide of the target.
A dubious second penalty assessed to Utica six minutes later was then negated by Moore and four-on-four play ensued.
That gave Timothy Liljegren a chance to showcase his talent and he came close to scoring after a beautiful curl-and-drag move to open the space to shoot, but Demko caught a piece of the puck with his shoulder.
A chance for Utica to extend their lead followed soon after as a turnover allowed Michael Carcone to escape unattended. The back-checking Liljegren attempted to slash Carcone, but the Utica forward still got his shot off which Pickard turned aside. Somewhat surprisingly, a penalty shot was assessed, and Pickard again denied Carcone to keep Toronto within one.
With eight minutes remaining, a rapid fire tic-tac-toe play resulted in a shot from Chris Mueller that was deflected just over the net. The Toronto forward was apoplectic shortly after when another power play was washed out due to a tripping penalty to Mueller despite his insistence that the Utica player fell over his stick which was still firmly planted to the ice in the puck battle.
As play continued, the veteran forward was rattling the penalty box door as the officials let much worse go in the ensuing couple of minutes.
The Marlies‘ mood wasn’t helped by a third Utica goal. Cam Darcy cleanly won an offensive zone face-off back to Patrick Wiercioch, who switched the puck to his forehand before firing an inch perfect shot into the top-right hand corner of Pickard’s net.
A one-time shot from a bad angle from Aaltonen on a feed from Nielsen was as close as the Marlies came to halving the deficit as they trailed 3-1 with 20 minutes left to play.
Third Period
A Marlies comeback rarely looked on the cards in the final frame. An early power play went to waste with Marchment not getting all of his shot on the best opportunity, and things quickly turned from bad to worse.
An ill-advised push in the back applied by Andreas Borgman to Tony Cameranesi sent the Comets forward, who was already a little unbalanced, head-first into the boards. There was no intent to injure, but it was reckless, and Borgman was rightly handed five for boarding and a game misconduct. Thankfully, Cameranesi was able to leave the ice upright with some assistance.
Thanks to Pickard and some stellar penalty killing, Toronto survived five minutes down a man but were unable to generate much offensively back at even strength and finished the period with just eight shots on net.
Just when the push might have come in the final five minutes, Marchment was tabbed for a high-sticking double minor (despite Mueller being the clear offender). The Comets hit the crossbar with the extra man but were more intent on winding down the clock.
In the end, Utica cruised to a 3-1 lead and won for just the second occasion against Toronto this season.
Post Game Notes
– Mason Marchment netted his 10th goal of the season a day after signing an entry-level deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“He’s been a little bit better,” said Sheldon Keefe. “I don’t think he’s reached the level that he was at earlier in the season [before his injury], but that said, the hockey is a lot better now. Teams are more organized and everyone is in shape. But he definitely seems like he’s making progress.”
“We’re happy for Marchy. He’s worked hard over the last couple of seasons. It’s good to see him get rewarded.”
– Calvin Pickard posted 34 saves, the most since January 6, but took his fourth loss in six games. Pickard is now 19-9-0 on the season with a .924 save percentage.
– Miro Aaltonen picked up an assist in his second game since returning from a concussion.
– After a slow start offensively to his Marlies career, Kyle Baun has picked up three assists in the past four games.
– Marlies lines:
Forwards
Moore – Aaltonen – Baun
Brooks – Mueller – Smith
Greening – Gauthier – Clune
Marchment – Plouffe – Bracco
Defensemen
Borgman – Holl
Rosen – Liljegren
Nielsen – LoVerde
Goaltenders
Pickard
Buitenhuis
