The Toronto Marlies continued their dominance in a season series against the regional rivals in Hamilton, but struggled mightily in their first pair of matchups against the Rockford IceHogs in three years.
Wednesday – Toronto 4, Hamilton 1
Toronto built up a healthy lead right out of the gate last Wednesday, getting goals from Luke Haymes and Michael Pezzeetta within the first six minutes. Haymes’ goal was a powerplay tally built off of an extra minor penalty earned by Hamilton in an altercation between Daylan Kuefler and Landon Sim.
Toronto further widened their lead to three through another powerplay goal, this one being Aatu Raty’s first tally with the team since being traded to the Maple Leafs earlier in the month. The Hammers had a quick response to snap a shutout bid for Samuel Hlavaj, but that was all the push they had in them. Marc Johnstone added an empty netter to seal the deal.
Saturday – Rockford 3, Toronto 2 (OT)
The Marlies started this game flat, with little sense of controlling play, and the scoreboard didn’t spare much mercy in reflecting that. After a play where Phillipe Myers deked to the front ot of the net to everyone’s surprise, didn’t convert, and went back the other way to take a penalty, the Toronto quickly conceded a powerplay goal against when Gavin Hayes put the IceHogs up 1-0. Six minutes later, a poor clear and a broken stick gave Rockford another chance to establish the offensive zone, leading to a another goal to put them up by two.
Toronto’s powerplay brought the back to life, first giving them a bit of energy via a Logan Shaw one-timer off the wing late in the first period. From there, Marlies domianted control of the puck in the second, outshooting the Icehogs 16-4, and carried much of that flow into the third. Things still weren’t working out for them, though, until a puck-over-glass penalty in the closing minutes gave the powerplay unit one more shot to pull this game back within reach. With 29 seconds left, Luke Haymes had the answer, burying an equalizer.
It wasn’t positive, though, as while Toronto was able to escape with a point, Landon Slaggert scored the game winning goal in overtime before the home squad could take their first shot.
Sunday – Rockford 3, Toronto 0
Toronto started out this game as stagnant as they did on Saturday, and unfortunately for them, they never really stopped, taking just sixteen shots the entire game – most of which came towards the final minutes of the third period. The Marlies were lucky to escape with a scoreless tie after a 9-2 shot count in the first period, but ultimately conceded two goals in two minutes from Jiri Felcman and Gavin Hayes that put them on their heels.
Nick Lardis added a third Rockford goal to put the game far out of reach, and Drew Commesso cruised to a surprisingly easy shutout.
Notes
- Dakota Joshua played in all three of these games for the Marlies as he continued and ultimately wrapped up his conditioning stint with the team. Maple Leafs fans are probably hoping to hear that he looked like he was in a league of his own and energized to get back into the NHL, but I can’t say that was the case, if I was being honest. His lines ended up on the right side of the shot column and he individually had a couple of looks, but he wasn’t a noteworthy difference maker.
- Fans were very excited to see Ben Danford throw a big hit on Saturday and then rise to the occasion when Rockford looked for him to answer for it. They were probably a little worried for a few seconds when it was 6’7 Taige Harding that dropped the gloves with him, but Danford held his own. Danford is down with the Marlies to build up the on-puck part of his game and get used to being a big minute guy, but having some sandpaper and role-player elements in his game as well will keep him a regular in the NHL once he gets there, so it’s good he’s not leaving those elements in the past.
- Sunday was probably the most flat I’ve seen Toronto look so far this season. “We were just a couple feet behind everywhere,” said head coach Steve Sullivan. “Two feet behind, you know, on our breakouts in regards to support, two feet behind going ion forechecks, in regards to getting pucks stalled. You’re not going to get that many shots off the rush. You have to get some sort of sustained offence to be able to create.”
- Artur Akthyamov started both Saturday and Sunday, which you don’t often see in the regular season. I asked Sullivan about it, wondering if it had to do with Saturday’s game being fairly low event, and that ended up being the case. “It wasn’t the plan. It was a thought process for us. We’re trying to get him up and ready and it’s going to happen sometimes where we try to get him some workload, and obviously he was with the Leafs last week. So we were going to see how game one went anda if the workload wasn’t overly high for him, we thought maybe we put him back in and see what it looks like in a back-to-back for him. We’re trying to create some data points in regards to his capability of being put in those situations.”
- Akthyamov gave up six goals on 34 shots across the weekend, which isn’t brilliant form a raw save percentage perspective, but given three powerplay tallies and a 3-on-3 overtime goal, it’s not a weekend to throw him under the bus for by any means.
- There was one altercation late in the third period of the final game where Landon Sim threatened to swing his stick at a Rockford player. He didn’t, and the refs made the correct decision to give him and Cavan Fitzergerald a 10 minute misconduct to prevent any revisitation of the scuffle, but that’s a “take a note of” situation. I love Sim’s energy and think he has potential to be a functional grit guy, at least at this level, but that was a moment that was dangerously close to the line.
Coming Up Next
| Date | Time | Opponent (Affiliate, Record) |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Oct 30 | 7:00 p.m. | vs. Hershey Bears (WSH, 6-2-0) |
| Sunday, Nov 1 | 4:00 p.m. | vs. Belleville Senators (OTT, 4-4-2) |
The Marlies play their last home game before the Royal Winter Fair tonight against the Hershey Bears, before heading to Belleville to take on the Senators on Sunday. For those unfamiliar with the fair, it’s an event that happens on the CNE grounds every year that sends Toronto out of town for a couple of weeks – their next home game after tonight isn’t until the 21st, and with that being a Scotiabank Arena game, they don’t actually play at the Colaseum until the 22nd.
Toronto’s game against Hershey will be their first against them this year, after splitting their two-game season series against them in 2025/26. The Capitals affiliate currently sit atop the Atlantic Division, posting a 0.750 record despite a goal differential of just +5. Their two losses so far have come against Charlotte and Providence, and three of their wins have come by just a single goal.
Prospect-tned eyes will likely have their focus on Lynden Lackovic (19, 2025 1st), Andrew Cristall (21, 2023 2nd), and Cam Allen (21, 2023 5th), who have all been among Hershey’s top producers out of the gate. Veteran Cal Petersen has been the go-to guy in between the pipes, best known for his 100 games plaeyd with the Los Angeles Kings between 2018 and 2023.
The Marlies faced Belleville just a couple weeks ago, splitting a Saturday/Sunday home-and-home. This past weekend, the senators came out storming against Wilkes-Barre but fell flat against the aforementioned Bears on Saturday, and then were shut out by Lehigh Valley. So, a very similar situation to Toronto’s. They’ll also face another opponent tonight (Hartford) before their game against the Marlies, so we’ll see who has the most responsive energy across the weekend.
Header photo from Flickr / Toronto Marlies. Analytics derived from personal tracking and/or data sourced from InStat.
