Same score, same result, different process for Marlies in another win

Photo Credit: Christian Bonin/TSGPhoto.com

No, we’re not stuttering. Hot off the heels of their 5-2 win over the Utica Comets at the Ricoh Coliseum, the Toronto Marlies decided to change the game completely, by defeating the Utica Comets 5-2 at the Ricoh Coliseum. While the net result was the same, the process wasn’t, so let’s take a look at what happened.

Some things, admittedly, did stay the same in this one. The first goal of the game was a great example of that; while Rich Clune and Carter Bancks sat in the box as the result of a scrap they had in the first minute, Comets rookie goaltender Thatcher Demko was penalized for playing the puck outside of the trapezoid, something he didn’t have to deal with in college.

This mean the Marlies were off to their first powerplay, and just like Saturday, that was Andreas Johnsson’s time to shine. The AHL rookie shoved a loose puck in behind Demko just twelve seconds into the man advantage to open up the scoring. While the Marlies outshot the Comets 12-7 in the opening frame, they didn’t hold on to the lead long enough to take it to intermission. Kasperi Kapanen took the period’s 13th’ combined penalty with three minutes remaining, and Jordan Subban took the opportunity to fire a bullet past Antoine Bibeau to tie things up.

Kapanen got his revenge early in the second, though, crashing the net with a rapid cut to the front of the net to put his team back ahead. Nine minutes later, Kapanen was the playmaker, setting up Dmytro Timashov for his first professional goal, giving the Marlies the first multi-goal lead of the game.

Toronto extended their good fortune in the third. Six minutes in, a pair of Colins had a collaboration; Greening crashed the net looking for a goal, and when he lost the puck, Smith trailed and slipped it five-hole. Not long afterward, Travis Dermott built on an already solid weekend, getting his first pro tally with a point shot while Wacey Hamilton sat in the box. A call to Frederik Gauthier reversed the scene shortly after, though, leading to Subban scoring his second of the game.

That ended the scoring for the night, though it didn’t end the events; Rinat Valiev and Michael Carcone were sent to the box for getting a little too chippy with each other shortly after the Subban goal, and soon as they came out, they dropped the mitts. After that, however, things played themselves out and Antoine Bibeau made the last of his 27 saves as the clock headed to the final buzzer.

There wasn’t a significant amount of change in today’s roster; Kerby Rychel sat out with an Illness, and Nikita Soshnikov sat out just to ease himself into the regular rhythm of things after missing much of training camp. With the win, the Marlies moved to 2-0-0 and became the league’s second team to hit the 10 goal mark, matching Texas. Their next game comes on Friday night when they take on the Amerks in Rochester.