Marlies win second half of Double Header against IceCaps

The Toronto Marlies took on the St. John’s IceCaps once again and looked to build upon their 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens affiliate on Saturday night. While it didn’t come easy, the Blue and White did just that, holding the fort on a 3-2 victory in which they controlled the flow of play at even strength. 

The Marlies had a brief moment of panic as Garret Sparks, who was returning from a few missed weeks of soreness, let in a less than stellar shot from Stefan Matteau just five minutes into the game. But that didn’t stress out the blue and white for long, as Kasperi Kapanen responded with one of the best goals you’ll see in this league all year:

The team wasn’t done, either. After Jacob De La Rose was penalized for a hit on Colin Smith, Brendan Leipsic made it 2-1 with this blast with 40 seconds remaining in the first period:

As luck would have it, Toronto got another powerplay opportunity in the dying seconds thanks to Nikita Scherbak, and as skill would have it, Kapanen converted the opportunity into his 7th goal of the season just four seconds into it:

Thanks to a wave of penalties against the Marlies in the second, St. John’s was given plenty of opportunity to strike back. Chris Terry did bring them within one with six minutes to go in the period, but while it looked like Michael McCarron had tied it up, his mid-air swing was well above the crossbar.

From there, both teams went back and forth with each other, with a lot of yapping, pushing, and shoving in between. What mattered most, though, was the score, and Sparks was there to make sure that it didn’t turn sour for them. Despite the initial effort, it was a good night for him; he stopped 28 of 30 and cut away the doubt that the opening goal caused.

With the win, the Marlies improve to 7-2-0-1 and return to the “best in the league” conversation, barely trailing Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (much like last year). Their next game will come on Friday night, as they take on those very Penguins in the penultimate game of this extended road trip. Puck drop is at 7:00 PM.