Marlies snap skid in grudge match against Devils

Photo Credit: Christian Bonin/TSGPhoto.com

Sometimes, there’s no place like home. Especially when it’s your actual home; the Toronto Marlies weren’t able to turn around their losing skid at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday, but their effort today against the Albany Devils at Ricoh Coliseum went much better, as the Leafs-to-be worked their way to a 4-1 result.

The Marlies opened up the scoring midway through the first period of this one, lighting the lamp not once, but twice in quick succession. Bryon Froese kicked things off by redirecting his eleventh goal of the season past MacKenzie Blackwood, and with Brian Sexton in the box, Rinat Valiev blasted his first of the year from the point to give Toronto a running start that they desperately needed.

Their run continued into the second, as Froese added a second tally at nearly the exactly same time as he hopped on the scoreboard in the first. Albany’s Jan Mandat broke Antoine BIbeau’s shutout with two and a half minutes to go in the period, but that was as close as anyone on their team would get to beating him again. Bibeau’s performance was a step up from yesterday’s, as he fended off the remaining thirteen shots in the third period and ended the night with 29 saves on 30 shots.

With two minutes to go, Dmytro Timashov added an empty-netter to seal the game off. The Devils weren’t too happy with how he did it, leading to a bit of a shoving match between Reece Scarlett and Tobias Lindberg, but that’s about as exciting as the game got from that point on, giving the Marlies a much needed win, their second consecutive at their normal home rink.

With the victory, Toronto stays above 0.500, but their 13-12-1-1 record keeps them in the fourth seed of the North Division. The good news is that the spots above them aren’t terribly unattainable; Albany and St. John’s are only three points ahead with one and two extra games played respectively. A strong run like Toronto had earlier in the season could right this ship once again; but it’ll have to wait until after Christmas. Their next game is on Boxing Day against the St. John’s IceCaps.