Marlies rally to win last game before long road trip

Photo Credit: Greg Abel / Toronto Marlies

Ricoh Coliseum and the surrounding buildings might be about to get a little agricultural, but that didn’t stop the farm club from putting in one more crowd-pleasing show of their own before heading off on their annual fall road trip. The blue and white initially fell behind against the Providence Bruins, but were able to rally to the tune of a 4-3 overtime win.

Six and a half minutes into the first period, Zac Rinaldo found himself all alone in the slot and pulled a deke on Antoine Bibeau to put the Bruins up. Continuing the veteran push, Peter Mueller extended the lead for Providence just a few minutes later with his own break, going five-hole after stripping Rinat Valiev off the puck.

While the Marlies were down by a pair heading into the second period, they weren’t ready to write the game off. An errant point shot by Andrew Campbell put ended with a redirection by Tobias Lindberg at the five-minute mark, and two minutes later, Kasperi Kapanen followed things up with his fourth of the season. With thirty seconds to go and Rinaldo racing out of the box to put his penalty-killing Bruins back at even strength, Brendan Leipsic picked up his second point on the night with a shot in the slot that easily beat Dan Vladar.

Much like the Bruins couldn’t hold their lead, though, the Marlies weren’t getting out of this one very easily. Jordan Szwarz tied the game once again for Providence in the third period, with a desperation swing of the stick after nearly being stripped of the puck by Justin Holl. This sent the game to overtime, and with a last-minute penalty to Tommy Cross still being in effect, Toronto’s powerplay unit went to work. A point shot from Andrew Nielsen ended up being the dagger. Deflecting off Colby Gave’s stick to create a change-up effect to seal off the game.

Antoine Bibeau finished the night with 30 saves on 33 shots while Toronto had 39 of their attempts hit or enter the net.

With the win, the Marlies improve to 5-1-0 on the season, with a league-leading 24 goals for and +10 goal differential. That’s with most of their games being played at home, though. Toronto now begins a road trip that will keep them away from Ricoh Coliseum until November 19th, with games in Albany, St. John’s, Wilkes-Barre, and Lehigh Valley. The first of which comes on Friday night, when they take on the Devils.