As the Toronto Marlies and Adirondack Flames began playing each other for the third time in the past week, you have to imagine that the two teams were sick of one another. That became evident as early as the second minute of the game when David Wolf and Andrew MacWilliam dropped the gloves, but they couldn’t just do that for the entire sixty. There was still a hockey game to be played, and in the case of the Marlies, a game to be lost, by a score of 3-1.

The Rundown

Toronto picked up its fair share of opportunities early on, with a couple of hit posts and powerplay tries in the opening minutes. It was the Flames, however, who were first to strike, while Frazer McLaren sat in the penalty box. Sena Acolaste fired a point shot, which Bill Arnold tipped past Antoine Bibeau to open the scoring.

That wasn’t the entirety of the period’s entertainment, though. Taking advantage of a puck left loose by William Nylander, Connor Brown created a 2-on-1 rush with Greg McKegg. Brown sent the pass over, McKegg cut across, and tucked the puck past Doug Carr to tie the game.

Things got worse before they got better, though. Six minutes into the second period, Marc Cundari put the Flames up again, scoring his seventh of the season. Two minutes later, the referees blew the whistle when they lost sight of the puck in front of Antoine Bibeau. The play should have been dead, but Markus Granlund kept going and scored. Rather than stick with their whistle, the referees called it a good goal.

The Marlies tried their hardest to come back, at one point going on an 18-3 shot run. They couldn’t make it happen, though, ended up surrendering an empty netter to seal the deal.

Blue Warrior

Even though he was a -2, I thought Brendan Leipsic was a treat to watch today. Made a few smart offensive plays, had a wicked spinorama, and got on the nerves of the Flames players throughout the game. There wasn’t a lot to be positive about, but he provided entertainment.

Notes

Antoine Bibeau was the starting goalie and stopped 23 of 26 shots against. Had some good moments, and some not so good ones. Can’t fault him for the performance, though.

Connor Brown is edging closer and closer to the fifty point plateau; his assist today brings him to 47 on the year.

Three in a row against Adirondack would have been nice, particularly since it would’ve meant a leapfrog over them in the standings. Didn’t happen, but gaining two points in total ground is a good result overall.

Jamie Devane drew into the lineup for the injured Tyler Biggs. He didn’t contribute all that much, but to be honest, he wasn’t particularly expected to.

Going 0-for-9 on the powerplay is pretty awful and something that the team will no doubt want to address before tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s game, by the way, is at 3PM against Utica.

Photo Courtesy of Christian Bonin / TSGPhoto.com





