Marlies Week 2 Recap: Doubling Up In The Hammer
The best way to bring back a regional rivalry? Face each other early, and often. That’s seemingly the plan in Toronto and Hamilton, as the Marlies and Hammers faced each other for the second and third time in a little over a week, with tensions high from the very start. Just like last weekend, the scoreboard went in Toronto’s favour once and twice again, with a pair of wins improving their record to 3-1 on the season.
A Preface On Format
I’ll be focused on following along with the Marlies throughout the regular season. I’m still playing a little bit of catchup on here as I get The Faceoff Circle set up to my liking, and local minor hockey tournments and season starts that I have team commitments to have made these past few weeks move a little slower than hoped on the content front. Nevertheless, the goal is to play catchup, fill in this post with more detail (see the “by the numbers” section for more on that), and get caught up on week one.
The goal at the moment is to follow a weekly schedule, summing up the games of the week prior on Sunday night or early Mondays. Storylines that interest me will get their own separate posts. Should there be a demand for these to move to a game-by-game schedule or for dedicated previews, the format could change.
Friday – Marlies 5, Hammers 4 (SO)
The Hammers began this game with the initial sense of moment, taking all of the game’s first shots in the opening five minutes and inside the opening ten, getting the game’s first goal, via a wicked wrist shot from Cole Eiserman that beat Artur Akthyamov for Hamilton’s first home goal as a franchise. The Marlies were quick to nip that excitement in the bud, with Michael Pezzetta responding just 39 seconds later. Another Hamilton goal would come with a little over four minutes remaining in the period, but once again, Ryan Tverberg took away the gap within a couple of shifts.
The Marlies grabbed their first and only lead in open play early in the second period, as Vinni Lettieri tapped home a go-ahead goal just twenty five second in to second period. Just like Toronto did to them, however, Hamilton didn’t let that lead sit around for long, scoring seconds into a powerplay to tie things up for a third time.
Brandon Scanlin put the Hammers up 4-3 midway through the middle frame, and unlike previous exchanges, this lead stuck around for a while. The Marlies didn’t let up though, making a push across the third period to catch up and when Alex Jefferies headed to the box with eleven and a half minutes remaining in the third, Lettieri tied the game once more, firing one of his trademark one-timers from the hashmarks past Vitek Vanecek.
Regulation solved nothing, and overtime wasn’t all that helpful either. The shootout was ultimately most fruitful for the Marlies, courtesy of a Brendan Brisson drag and release from the Datsyuk/Giroux playbook, and a game-clinching wrsiter from Lettieri.
Sunday – Marlies 5, Hammers 2
If Saturday was the day for the Leafs’ big stars to break out on the scoresheet, this was the same for the Marlies. In a five-goal game, three players found themselves on the scoresheet several times over, often in bunches of two or three.
The most direct of that damage came from Brendan Brisson, who has made the most of his first few games with the team. A bar-down one-timer from distance put Toronto up 1-0 just two and a half minutes into the contest, and six minutes later, he crept into the slot to take in a pass from Vinni Lettieri, his wrist shot ringing off another post.
Cam Berg put the Hammers back within one midway through the second period and with the Marlies on the penalty kill, Hamilton equalized early in the third. Brisson still had another trick up his sleeve, however, responding to Hamilton with a high wrister to wrap up his hat-trick just 22 seconds later. In the last minute of the game, a couple of Marlies who may have had some earlier regrets got to ice the game with a pari of empty netters. Luke Haymes, who missed a penalty shot in the second period, scored the first while Ryan Tverberg, who was in the box for the Matthew Highmore equalizer, potted the second.
Notes
- Brendan Brisson has been money in the bank for the Marlies to start this year. Already having had flashes in his opening weekend, his Hat Trick on Sunday brings him to seven points in his first four games. Historically, Brisson has been about a 0.6 point/game player at the AHL level through his first four seasons, but it’d be nice to see this be the start of a jump to AAAA status.
- Speaking of AAAA guys, a huge five-point weekends for Logan Shaw and Vinni Lettieri, who the team’s top scoring forwards in the playoffs last year. Lettieri more evenly spread his scoring across the two games, picking up two goals on Friday and three assists on Sunday, while Shaw had an assist on Friday to go with four helpers on Sunday. Were the last two secondaries on empty netters? Sure, but they don’t ask how, they ask how many.
- Goaltending responsiblities were split between Artur Akthyamov and Samuel Hlavaj this weekend. Akthyamov stopped 28 of 32 in open play and 2 of 3 in the shootout on Friday, while Hlavaj stopped 22 of 24 on Sunday for his first win as a Marlie.
- These two teams have made quick enemies. Landon Sim and Kashawn Aitcheson, once OHL rivals, dropped the gloves six minutes into Friday’s game, while Philippe Myers and Luke Rowe went toe-to-toe just three seconds into Sunday’s game. Lots of pushing, shoving, roughing and chippy stuff was scattered across the two games. There was some wonder if Toronto/Hamilton would be as testy as it was the last time around with the Islanders being less of an NHL rival than Montreal – I have a feeling proximity will carry this one home for the foreseable future.
- I really wanted to get out to check out TD Coliseum this weekend but had a couple of schedule conflicts that made the trip a little out of reach. A road adventure is definitely in the cards for some point in this season series, though.
- Nice to see head coach Jay McKee and assistant coach Vince Laise behind the bench in Hamilton, having some experience with them in Brantford with the Bulldogs. Obviously, loyal to the region. Hope it works out well for them at the pro level – this has been a bit of a slow start for the Hammers but I’m sure it’ll come for them.
Coming Up Next
| Date | Time | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Oct 17 | 4:00 p.m. | @ Belleville Senators (OTT, 2-2-0, -3 GD) |
| Sunday, Oct 18 | 4:00 p.m. | vs. Belleville Senators (OTT, 2-2-0, -3 GD) |
The Marlies pick things back up this weekend with a home-and-home against the Belleville Senators. At the time of writing, Belleville has had a very back-and-forth start to their season, beginning with a home opener defeat to Hamilton, following it up with one-goal wins against Rochester and Syracuse, and most recently losing 4-2 to Utica on Sunday.
Belleville’s top scorer at the time of posting this is Kasper Halttunen, a 2023 second-round pick of San Jose who was included in Ottawa’s draft day acqusition of William Eklund. Leafs fans will remember Sammy Blais, who played eight games for Toronto last year before getting claiemd off waivers by Montreal, who they claimed him from in the first place.
Belleville will play one game before this one, facing Laval on Friday, making this a 3-in-3 weekend for them. It’s imparative that the Marlies take advantage of the extra rest.
By The Numbers
The goal for this block in present and future posts is to provide something akin to what Hockey Stat Cards does for NHL data, plus a few other microstats. To do this most efficiently, I’ll be using a third-party data vendor, which we’ll have access to soon.
For games that they don’t yet have tracked, I’ll include some of my own manually-tracked data (which may have different definitions, but I use to keep focused on the game and take notes as I’m watching) as interim content and update when fuller data is available.
In the case of this week, I watched these games in a situation where I wasn’t able to track, so I’ll update this at some point with whichever of my tracking on a second watch or the third-party information is available to me first.
