Marlies Win In OT, Take 3-0 Series Lead
9 years ago
Here at The Leafs Nation, we’re a bunch of stupid nerds. So much so, that people have complained about our repeated references to the Pokemon video game and series. For that, I’m sorry, and there will be no references to Pokemon in this introduction.
With that said, the Toronto Marlies totally remind me of Super Mario Bros. right now. They’ve grabbed the picked up some coins, and now they’ve got the Gold Star. The Gold Star makes you invincible; you can kill your opponents just by running through them. But eventually, the star’s power fades away, and if a brown goomba is in your path as it disappears, you’re going to die.
Chicago wears a maroonish brown, They might be humans wearing wolves on their chests rather than sentient mushrooms, but at the end of the day, the Toronto Marlies have to have their gold star end at some point, right? It wasn’t tonight, however, as the blue and white pulled off a 4-3 overtime win.
The Marlies were the first to strike, scoring the opening goal in a way that is all too familiar. With a man advantage, Spencer Abbott fed TJ Brennan, who fired one of his trademark one timers to beat Jake Allen top-shelf. It was the period’s only goal, until the final minutes, when goals began to grown on trees. Dmitrij Jaskin tied the game with four and a half minutes left, and fifty seconds later, Peter Holland took the lead back with a one timer from Brennan. Adamn Cracknell came back with another tying goal two minutes later, and eleven seconds later, Brandon Kozun crashed the net and put in his third of the playoffs. Needless to say, anybody who headed to concessions early probably regretted it.
The second period was significantly quieter, but carried by the Wolves, who took 14 of the 19 shots in the frame. The most important of which came from Tyler Shattock, who put in a cross-creaser to tie the game at three. This should have set up a big third period, but instead, it set up a quiet one that headed to overtime. Four minutes into the sudden-death frame, Jerry D’Amigo picked up his own rebound to wimn the game.
Other Notes
- Drew MacIntyre was in net (big surprise), and stopped 32 of 35 shots. A shaky start, but he definitely kept the team in the game down the stretch, particularly in the second period.
- Jerry D’Amigo seems to be Mr. Playoffs, doesn’t he? He now has 4 goals and 7 assists in 6 playoff games.
- That Abbott to Brennan goal was something that was missing in this team for the past couple of weeks. Also, I’m a big fan of Brennan’s swordsman/Alex Radulov goal celebration. He’s done it a couple of times this year, and I think he should keep it in his rotation. It just looks cool.
- Taking a late third period penalty was probably not on David Broll’s “to-do” list when he was put back in the lineup for today’s game.
- Andrew MacWIlliam left the game early in the second period. He had been in a first-period collision behind the net. Steve Spott said it was an upper body injury, but not his head. MacWilliam suffered a concussion last month.
- Josh Leivo lead the team with four shots, but ended up pointless and a -1.
- Toronto was 1 for 2 on the powerplay, and 2 for 3 on the penalty kill.
- Attendance was a somewhat disappointing 3406. Game 4 is at Ricoh on Friday.
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