Marlies suffer power failure

Griffins 3 Marlies 1 Toronto 0 for 10 with extra man Fatigue, not effort, gets the blame

Ten power plays, four of them 5on- 3, against a team that arrived in Toronto at 4 a. m. is almost always a recipe for success, but the Marlies couldn’t overcome their own fatigue or the secondbest team in the American Hockey League yesterday.

Playing their third game in three nights, the Marlies fell 3- 1 to the Grand Rapids Griffins, but Marlies coach Paul Maurice wasn’t about to gripe about his team’s level of commitment.

“ You play three games in three nights against arguably the best team in the league and you give up 17 shots,” Maurice said. “ I thought our effort was good.”

Still, three in three is a fact of life in the AHL and the Marlies blew an opportunity to take their record above .500 for the first time this season. Grand Rapids, the Detroit Red Wings’ affiliate, was also playing its third in three nights after playing in Cleveland Saturday.

Maurice reasoned that a large reason why the Marlies went 0 for 10 on the power play was that his best players, who typically play on the power play, were tired.

“ I think it was fairly evident that for both teams, there weren’t a lot of easy passes or good plays out there as you’ll find in this league on some Sundays,” Maurice said. Jeremy Williams had four shots for the Marlies and continues to improve. Williams is the Marlies’ top long- term prospect at forward with Alexander Steen and Kyle Wellwood firmly entrenched with the big team. But if the Leafs ever ran into depth trouble at forward, the first call-up would likely be John Pohl, a versatile player who has more experience. The Marlies are short- staffed and will likely have to make do without defenceman Andy Wozniewski for a while. Wozniewski was hit in the face with a puck on Nov. 6 and while he wasn’t formally diagnosed with a concussion, he has been unable to work out hard after 10 days of rest because of continuing concussion- like symptoms.