Toronto Marlies Lay An Egg In 3-1 Loss To Belleville Senators

Following the goal, Belleville kept the pressure on the Marlies. I kept waiting for the pushback from Toronto. I waited for the remainder of the first and second periods, but it never happened. All four of the Senators’ lines just kept coming in waves. When the Marlies would get control of the puck, they were slow-moving and indecisive about what to do with it. The shots in the first period were 13-4 Belleville. 

The Senators outshot the Marlies 15-8 in the second and scored on two of their shots. Tyler Kleven scored just 48 seconds into the frame. Ostapchuck returned the favor with Currie for setting him up on the first goal by setting Currie up for a goal of his own at 10:31 of the period.  

Belleville took their foot off the gas a bit in the third period. They were happy to play a 1-2-2 formation and clog up the neutral zone, which did not allow the Marlies much room to move. Even with not pressuring Toronto as much they still outshot them 10-6 in the final stanza and 38-18 overall. 

Belleville Head Coach David Bell could not have written the game any more perfectly than his players played it.  It was as one-sided a game as I have watched for quite some time.  If not for Hildeby, the score would have easily been double or triple what it was. 

What’s Next?

The two teams travel to Toronto for game two on Friday at 7:00 pm. Marlies’ Head Coach John Gruden will have his work cut out for him if he wants to avoid a two-game sweep by Belleville in the best-of-three series. The players have to be completely demoralized by their game on Wednesday. The worst thing about it was it wasn’t for lack of effort. I would guess the team had to be dead tired after chasing the play for 60 minutes in Game 1.

Toronto lost Gaunce after he got tangled up with a Belleville player and fell awkwardly into the boards behind his net about three minutes into the third period. I would be surprised if he were able to play on Friday. 

After having some of their top players miss time late in the season, they were all back for this game except for Ryan Tverberg. While I would expect Gruden to make some lineup changes going into Game 2, I don’t know if they will be significant enough to make a difference.  

If the Marlies want to force Game 3 back in Belleville on Sunday afternoon (3:00 p.m. start), they must dig deep to overcome this loss.