It didn’t come in the manner they would’ve preferred, but the Toronto Marlies clinched the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy for best regular season record by grabbing a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Utica Comets on Friday night.
If not for Thatcher Demko, the Marlies would have cruised to victory with one of their more dominant performances of late, but Utica’s netminder kept his team in the game time and time again over the 65 minutes.
Regardless, thanks to the point, the Marlies claimed the regular season title for the second time in three seasons.
“It’s a nice achievement, for sure. You play 72 games, the schedule is a grind, and it is not an easy league. To be able to get it done like this, with four games remaining, is a real nice achievement. You work all season and you want to be good. You want to be consistent. We’ve been able to do that. Kudos to our players for the effort they’ve put in all year long.
Now we’ve got four games remaining on the schedule and you can really sort of turn the page and looking forward to preparing for playoffs and preparing for what we really want to be playing for late in the season. We want to be competitive and we want to be good when it really counts. All of this stuff in the regular season is going to reset itself back to zero, and we’ve got to make sure we’re ready.”
– Toronto Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe on capturing the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy
First Period
It took over four minutes for the first shot of the night and it came in the form of the game’s first goal.
A reverse pass from Trevor Moore allowed Pierre Engvall to drive down the right wing before releasing a cross-ice feed from low in the circle. The pinching Martin Marincin made no mistake at the back post for his fourth of the season.
Demko then kept Utica in the game with a pair of saves on Ben Smith before holding onto a snapshot from Scott Pooley and pulling off a full-length dive to deny Engvall on a Toronto power play.
Utica finally recorded a shot on goal at the 10-minute mark, when Calvin Pickard needed to have his wits about him to stop Tanner MacMaster. Pickard then produced a pair of sharp saves on Lukas Jasek and Alexis D’Aoust on Utica’s first man advantage of the game.
Andrew Cherniwchan couldn’t convert on the Comets’ best opportunity to level the score on a shorthanded rush before Toronto nearly doubled their advantage with 30 seconds remaining in the period. Moore led a 3-on-1 break down the left side, resulting in a shot from Justin Holl that Demko somehow helped onto the crossbar.
Second Period
The Marlies outshot Utica 18-6 in the middle frame but still only led by a single goal after 40 minutes.
A second marker finally arrived with seven minutes remaining when Vincent LoVerde ripped home a one-timer from the left circle on the power play. Utica responded within three minutes, however, after a speculative effort from Tony Cameranesi produced a rebound that fell into the wheelhouse of Cole Cassels between the hashmarks for Cassels’ seventh of the season.
Toronto responded by creating a couple of chances to regain a two-goal lead but couldn’t solve Demko, with Colin Greening and Engvall both left frustrated by the Utica netminder.
Third Period
A combination of a fast start from the Comets and a sloppy response from Toronto almost led to an early tying goal for Utica. Pickard denied Jasek inside the first minute before Michael Carcone fired wide after pouncing on an ugly turnover from Marincin.
Cassels then unwisely chose a pass over a shot when faced with half an empty cage to aim at, meaning Toronto survived the opening barrage.
The Marlies were back on top before a delay-of-game penalty altered the momentum with six minutes remaining. The impressive young rookie Jasek rifled home from the slot to bring the home team level.
Both teams exchanged power plays opportunities in the final five minutes of the third but regulation didn’t produce a winner.
Utica began overtime with 51 seconds of a 4-on-3 power play, which the Marlies successfully killed off. Outside of a 2-on-1 rush that Miro Aaltonen did well to break up, the Marlies were the more dangerous team in extra time, with Moore and Engvall robbed by Demko. Dmytro Timashov also struck the post.
It seemed inevitable that Demko would shut the door in the shootout, and his three saves allied with Cassels’ lone goal secured the extra point for Utica.
Post Games Notes
– Courtesy of Todd Crocker: With two road games left, the Marlies will set the record for fewest road losses in an AHL season (previously eight, held by the Binghamton Rangers 1992-93). Toronto currently has five regulation losses on the road.
“You can’t quite put your finger on it. You don’t really track it. You know you’re a good team on the road and you’ve been winning and having success. You’re not looking at it as record-breaking or anything like that, but all of a sudden, it creeps up on you that you’re doing something unique. Credit to the players. This league is hard and to be able to win on the road means you’ve got to dig in, you’ve got to play tired, and you’ve got to be very consistent in your play.
I’ve said it before: Our staff takes really good care of our players and give our guys every opportunity to succeed and be at their best every day. They’ve still got to put their gear on and compete and play well each night to give yourself a chance at something like that.”
– Sheldon Keefe on setting league records for performance on the road
– Vincent LoVerde netted his ninth of the season. Seven of those have been scored in his last 14 outings.
– Pierre Engvall recorded his sixth point in just seven games (3-3-6). His five attempts on net equalled his best so far in his short stint.
– Trevor Moore recorded his 19th assist and 30th point of the season. He’s riding a three-game point streak (1-3-4) and led all skaters with six shots.
– Jeremy Bracco produced his 22nd assist of the season, which ranks him 15th among all AHL rookies in that category.
– Last but not least, the Toronto Marlies almost exclusively bus to and from every road game, as does virtually every team in the AHL. I reside in the UK, and that’s also the case for hockey clubs here. It’s unthinkable that any members of a team would not return from one of those journeys. I extend my deepest sympathies to the entire Humboldt Broncos community after such a devastating tragedy.
– Friday’s lines:
Forwards
Engvall-Aaltonen-Moore
Timashov-Mueller-Smith
Greening-Gauthier-Pooley
Marchment-Brooks-Bracco
Defensemen
Rosen-Holl
Marincin-Liljegren
Nielsen-LoVerde
Goaltenders
Pickard
Sparks
