First period is Crunch time against Marlies
Marlies badly outplayed in opening 20 minutes for second straight game
SYRACUSE, N.Y.— Things are going very badly for the Toronto Marlies.
They were clobbered by the aptlynamed Syracuse Crunch 8-5 on Saturday night, and lost top centre Frederik Gauthier in the process.
After a week off to prepare for this best-of-seven Calder Cup playoff series, the Marlies have now dropped the first two games, largely due to poor starts, too many penalties, lazy play and needless giveaways.
“We just have to keep things in perspective here,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We know we’re in a playoff series, and we have work to do. All that said, we’ve lost two games on the road.
> CRUNCH 8 > MARLIES 5 SYRACUSE LEADS SERIES 2-0
“We’re going to go home with an opportunity to fix it. You’re not in real trouble until you’ve lost on home ice. We wanted a better result here, but we have a chance to go home and take care of our business.”
Keefe said he had no update on Gauthier, the victim of a crushing hit from Jake Dotchin, who has a history of injuring players in the Leafs system. It was a hit from Dotchin that injured Kasperi Kapanen, costing the winger seven weeks, earlier in the season. And in a brief call up to the Tampa Bay Lightning, he went knee-on-thigh with Leafs rookie Auston Matthews.
Gauthier collapsed to the ice, ultimately helped off while unable to put weight on his left leg. Kapanen de- clined to give his thoughts on Dotchin.
“It doesn’t matter what I say,” Kapanen said. “He’s done it once, and he’s done it again today. It’s also hockey, and stuff happens. But it’s something to be concerned about.” Games 3 and 4 are Tuesday and Wednesday at the Ricoh Coliseum, giving Keefe a bit of time to recalibrate a team that had seemed welloiled, motivated and confident. The Marlies were outshot 16-6 in the first period of Game 1, and an astonishing 16-2 in the first period Saturday.
“We have some time to really get a grasp of what they are doing well and what we can do better,” said Keefe. “We thought we had a good handle on it, but clearly that wasn’t the case. “We have to be a whole lot better.” Goaltending kept them in Friday’s game, but abandoned them on Saturday. The Marlies were down 4-1 after the first period and 5-1 before Antoine Bibeau replaced Kasimir Kaskisuo early in the second period.
“We started off really poorly and the game was over before it began,” said Kapanen. “We just have to learn from this, go back home and reset and be ready on Tuesday.”
Kapanen, Seth Griffith, Andreas Johnsson, Carl Grundstrom and Cal O’Reilly scored for the Marlies, who mounted an attack after trailing 6-1.
Matthew Peca, Joel Vermin and Cory Conacher each scored twice — both of Conacher’s were short-handed — for Syracuse. Michael Bournival and Tye McGinn also scored for the Crunch.
Syracuse goalie Mike McKenna faced 18 shots in a penalty-filled game that included four 10-minute misconducts and one game misconduct.
“I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface of our own game and they are playing at their best right now,” said Kapanen. “We’re happy to go back home and try to win back-to-back games.
“Our confidence might be a bit low but we know we’re a good hockey team. We’ll see what happens . . . They took care of business in Syracuse. We’re going to try to win backto-back games and even it up.” The Marlies had made lineup changes to try to keep up with the faster Crunch. Grundstrom made his North American professional debut, while veteran Rich Clune got his first playoff action. Grundstrom had a goal and an assist, doing all the hard work on O’Reilly’s goal.