Marlies have Devil of a time dropping opener
There have been times this season that the Toronto Marlies have looked other-worldly.
But there have also been times, albeit few and far between, when they’ve looked human. Wednesday’s loss to the Albany Devils — a 2-1decision in the opener of their secondround best-of-seven Calder Cup playoff series — was an example of a Marlies team that looked beatable. “We’ve had more than enough times to feel like we were human,” said Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe. “I think we know what we’re in for here. It’s never a good thing to lose a hockey game against a team like this. It’s hard to get these games back.”
No one said the march through the American Hockey League playoffs would be easy. And if the Marlies thought it might be after a firstround sweep over Bridgeport, the Devils showed them otherwise.
“You don’t expect it to be easy, and it wasn’t easy,” said forward Ben Smith. “They’re a good team, and they drew first blood.”
Connor Carrick got the only goal for the Marlies in a physical and a sometimes frantic contest that a packed Ricoh Coliseum seemed to enjoy, except for the outcome. Carrick’s goal, his fourth of the postseason, was sandwiched between two from Albany at the mid-point of the first period.
There seemed like very little room for puck-handlers to manoeuvre, with both teams playing an aggressive checking game and Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood outduelling Marlies goalie Garret Sparks. The Marlies outshot Albany 33-29.
“We weren’t totally upset with the way we played, but it wasn’t good enough, and we’ll have to be better in Game 2,” said Smith. “We want to be able to get up to our pace, get up to our speed.”
It was the first time since March 4 the Marlies failed to score at least two goals, with an 0-for-3 power play contributing to the low offensive output.
“We’ve had a lot of success all year scoring,” forward Brendan Liepsic said. “We’re not going to panic or dwell on this too much. We know we had our chances.”
The result puts a fair bit of pressure on the Marlies to win Friday in Game 2 at the Ricoh, since Games 3, 4 and 5 are all next week in Albany.
That the opener was such a close game shouldn’t have been a surprise, given the strength of both teams. This second-round battle features two of the AHL’s titans: The Marlies, whose 114 points were tops in the league, versus the Devils, whose 102 points were second-best.
The Marlies were without centre William Nylander, winger Nikita Soshnikov and defenceman Andrew Campbell due to various ailments. All have been key cogs at different points this season.
But the team, deep in AHL talent, has overcome player losses before, so it wasn’t about to start making excuses.
“You miss those guys, but it’s the kind of thing where the next guy has to step up,” Smith said. “We’ve got 25 great hockey players and they’re all guys that deserve to play. No excuses. Whoever is in the lineup has to find a way to win games.”