No Drou, Just Win at Ricoh Coliseum as Marlies pull off comeback

Photo Credit: Christian Bonin / TSGPhoto.com

Heading into tonight’s Toronto Marlies game, much of the talk was about the Syracuse Crunch. Specifically, it was about Jonathan Drouin, and how he would play against the AHL’s best team as he awaited his trade. Suddenly, it became about how he was out of the lineup (first reported by yours truly) on his own accord, refusing to play another game until he was moved. But that didn’t matter to the players on the ice, who had a game to play; one which the Marlies won with a fantastic comeback.

While Toronto was up to their usual high-octane offensive ways, the Crunch were the firsts to get on the scoresheet. As Viktor Loov sat in the penalty box, Mike Blunden broke the ice with a floater from the right wing hash marks that squeaked between Antoine Bibeau’s legs. Loov made up for his costly mistake shortly afterward, finishing off a play that involved all five Marlies skaters with a heavy wrist shot from the point that tied the game just six minutes later.

The second period was very low key, in the sense that penalties were nearly non-existent (minus a roughing call to former Marlies forward David Broll) and shots calmed down to a reasonable 10-9 balance. With a minute to go, however, Ryan Rupert’s attempt at springing a break for Kasperi Kapanen went horribly awry, leading to Cameron Darcy sprinting back the other way and scoring a rare goal.

Mark Arcobello tied the game for Toronto once again in the third period, taking advantage of Kristers Gudlevskis’ tight hugging of the right post to snipe a wrister into the other gaping half of the net. It only took Syracuse a minute and a half to not only regain their lead but add insurance, though, as Tanner Richard and Anthony DeAngelo took turns beating Bibeau to put the gaming seemingly out of reach.

With that said, it was a long third period, and the teams were both ready for a gunfight. Both teams took over fifteen shots in the third period alone, and it slowly but surely, the Marlies chipped away at the lead. Midway through the period, Nikita Soshnikov’s carry across the offensive zone resulted in a shot on goal and a few rebounds, with Zach Hyman’s crossing the line. With a minute and change remaining in the third, Arcobello struck again with a breakaway slapshot set up by Jeremy Morin to tie the game up just in time for overtime.

The two teams each exchanged a shot on goal in the extra frame before, well, just watch.

Ryan Rupert, who is without a stick at this point, kicks the puck to Brendan Leipsic, who scores a brilliant spin goal for his 14th point in his last twelve games. More importantly, he capped off a victory for the Marlies, who after 44 shots on goal, earned their first lead of the game when it mattered most.

Overall, it was a good night for the team. Newcomer Eric Baier picked up an assist in his debut, though fellow signee Rylan Schwartz was held pointless, shotless, and to a -2 rating. The newly-formed top line of Soshnikov, Arcobello, and Hyman were offensively dominant. Viktor Loov, for perhaps the first time in 2015/16, stepped up to the plate to play the role of offensive defenceman that we saw early last year. Not only did he score a goal, he took six shots on net, was more involved in carrying the puck, and managed to keep a few hopeless pucks in the zone once they were there. Despite some rough patches, there were some bright spots.

Perhaps nobody knows this more than Antoine Bibeau. This wasn’t the best game I’ve seen him play this year; not by a longshot. Many of the goals against him appeared to be saveable, but he got his act together in the late stages of the third, with his pair of saves in the last minute being arguably as fantastic as the overtime goal.

With the win, the Marlies move to a record of 32-8-2, a points percentage of 0.786, and a goal differential of +59. The numbers are getting absurd at this point; their goal differential is 33 higher than anybody other than Wilkes-Barre (+46), and they have 34 more goals than any team in the Eastern Conference.

Toronto’s next game is on Saturday, in which they’ll be taking on the Utica Comets. Utica, who are affiliates of the Vancouver Canucks, are currently 6th in the Eastern Conference with a 0.538 points percentage. The puck drops at 3:00 PM.