Game Recap

The Toronto Marlies waited until the final five minutes to take their first lead of the game on Saturday night, but that was enough to finish out a late push in a 4-2 victory over Laval.

It was a solid showing to fight back and rebound from a slow start in Laval on the heels of a loss Friday.

Laval opened the scoring less than eight minutes into the game on a goal from Antoine Waked. The Rocket took a 1-0 lead into the intermission after goaltender Calvin Pickard made 15 saves in the opening frame alone to keep the Marlies in it, as Toronto was outshot 16-3.

Miro Aaltonen had the response for the Marlies early in the second, redirecting a hard pass from the top of the slot on the power play. Aaltonen’s eleventh of the season was assisted by Andreas Johnsson and Calle Rosen. Johnsson extended his point streak to eight games with the helper.

A quick redirect by Miro Aaltonen put the #Marlies on the board early in the second.#MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/X0rl7SKYBe — Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) February 18, 2018

With 5:06 left in the second, Michael McCarron put the Rocket back ahead as Laval took a 2-1 lead into the third period.

With the Marlies offense putting pressure on Laval’s defence, Kerby Rychel tied the game again with under eight minutes left to go. Planted in front of the net, Rychel deflected a bouncing puck after a Martin Marincin shot for his ninth of the season. Timothy Liljegren had the second assist.

Great focus from @Krychs to find the bouncing puck for the tying goal tonight.#MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/9FzUKNuV4w — Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) February 18, 2018

Aaltonen scored his second of the night to put the Marlies ahead with 4:03 remaining, as he was all alone in the slot after a great backhand pass from Johnsson.

All alone and Aaltonen makes no mistake putting away the game winner tonight.#MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/YU3vQt3yFN — Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) February 18, 2018

Johnsson went on to add an empty net goal to cap off a three-point night. It was Johnsson’s fourth three-point performance in the past eight games.

Pickard finished the game with 31 saves for his seventeenth win of the season. Pickard now holds a 1.86 goals against average and .931 save percentage.

With the win, the Marlies improve to 38-12-0-1 this season and are now 6-1-0-0 against Laval. They are 28-7-0-0 against North Division opponents and 23-5-0-1 on the road.

The Rocket fall to 19-26-6-2 with the loss.

After taking tomorrow off, the Marlies return to action on Monday for a special Family Day game at Air Canada Centre against the Hershey Bears. Tickets are still available.

Game Notes

GAME SUMMARY | GAME SHEET

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: M. Aaltonen (11) PP (A. Johnsson, C. Rosen), K. Rychel (9) (M. Marincin, T. Liljegren), M. Aaltonen (12) (A. Johnsson)

Goaltender: C. Pickard (31/33)

Laval: A. Waked (4) (M. McCarron, M. Eisenschmid), M. McCarron (7) PP (A. Cracknell, N. Juulsen)

Goaltender: M. McNiven (24/27)

FROM THE SCORESHEET

Miro Aaltonen scored his first goal of the game at 4:12 of the second period and his second on the power play at 15:57 of the third period. Aaltonen has 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists) in his last six games.

Kerby Rychel scored at 12:18 of the third period. Rychel has six points (2 goals, 4 assists) in his last six games.

Andreas Johnsson scored the empty net goal at 19:34 of the third period. Earlier, he added the primary assists on Aaltonen’s second and third period goals. Johnsson has registered a point (6 goals, 11 assists) in eight consecutive games. Johnsson leads the team in empty net goals with four.

Calle Rosen recorded the secondary assist on Aaltonen’s first period goal. Rosen has recorded 12 assists this season.

Martin Marincin registered the primary assist on Rychel’s third period goal.

Timothy Liljegren had the secondary assist on Aaltonen’s third period goal. This was Liljegren’s 10th assist of the season.

Calvin Pickard stopped 31 of 33 shots. Pickard is now 17-5-0-1 on the season with a .931 Save Percentage and a 1.86 Goals Against Average.

NOTABLES

Toronto went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 1-for-2 on the power play. Toronto’s penalty kill had not allowed a goal in 10 games since January 19th against Syracuse.

Laval had a 33-28 edge in shots in all situations.

Calle Rosen led the Marlies with seven shots on goal.

The Marlies are 28-7-0-0 against North Division opponents this season and 6-1-0-0 against the Laval Rocket. The Marlies have outscored the Rocket 29-11 with five games left in the season’s series.

TEAM LEADERS

Goals: A. Johnsson (23)

Assists: A. Johnsson (23)

Points: A. Johnsson (46)

PPG: A. Johnsson (6), C. Mueller (6)

Shots: K. Rychel (110)

+/-: B. Smith (+29)

PIMS: A. Nielsen (104)

POSTGAME QUOTES

On tonight’s game:

It’s much better to win the ugly game than it is to lose the ugly game. We’re happy to get the two points here today. Full marks to Laval today. That team really worked hard with their depleted line-up. They worked really hard today and they were the better team for large portions of the hockey game. And credit to our guys for sticking with it and not going away and not giving up on the game and just kept going and found a way to get a win.

On Calvin Pickard:

We were only in this game today because of Picks’ performance all through the game but in particular in that first period, they were shooting the puck from everywhere as we predicted that they would do here today. They just played a real simple game, straight ahead and shot at the net to create some chaos that way. Pick was dialed in and he was out chasing pucks to help us out and make plays. I got no issues with anything he did here today. And especially the fact that he’s the reason we had the chance for two tonight.

– Head coach Sheldon Keefe

NEXT GAME:

February 19 vs Hershey – 3:00 p.m. ET (Air Canada Centre)

February 21 vs Binghamton – 11:00 a.m. ET

February 23 at Rochester – 7:05 p.m. ET

February 24 vs Rochester – 4:00 p.m. ET

February 28 vs Syracuse – 11:00 a.m. ET

Game Preview

The Toronto Marlies are headed to Laval on Saturday night, looking to bounce back from a 3-1 loss in Belleville yesterday evening.

Last night’s result was the Marlies first regulation loss of 2018 and they will hope to respond against the Rocket.

Following the game in Belleville, head coach Sheldon Keefe’e message was simple. “We just have to find a way to dig in and be better here.”

It’s the seventh meeting of the season between the Marlies (27-12-0-1) and Rocket (19-25-6-2). The Marlies are currently leading the season series with five wins and just one loss to Laval.

The last time the two sides played, two weeks ago in Toronto, the Marlies ran away with a 7-1 victory. They’ll hope to have the offense firing again tonight.

Chris Mueller and Kerby Rychel have been driving the offense against Laval this season, as they’ve combined for 16 points in the six games so far.

Mueller has three goals and five assists while Rychel has scored once and collected seven helpers.

Andreas Johnsson, who leads the Marlies overall with 22 goals and 43 points, is averaging over a point-per-game against Laval with five goals and an assist in five games played.

At the other end, Laval are also coming off a loss last night as they fell 6-3 to the Hershey Bears.

Niki Petti has two goals and an assist, leading Laval in scoring against the Marlies. Chris Terry has 20 goals and 43 points overall on the season as he leads the Rocket’s offense in both categories.

Special teams could be an important factor in tonight’s game as the Marlies power play has clicked against Laval. Despite converting 15.8% of chances overall on the season, Toronto is 9-for-32 (28.1%) on the man advantage against the Rocket.

They have also given up just one goal while shorthanded despite giving up 21 power play opportunities.

Puck drop for tonight’s game is scheduled for 7:00 and fans can tune in on AHL Live or Marlies Radio.

Follow us on Twitter for pre- and post-game coverage, as well as live updates from Place Bell.

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