The Toronto Maple Leafs American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, finished the 2024 portion of the 2024-25 season with the best winning percentage in the AHL at .722% (a 17-5-5 record). The team is not having a happy New Year, however, starting 2025 with three regulation losses in a row. They scored just three goals over the three games while giving up nine (two were empty-netters).
In this post, Stan Smith and I will take a look at what’s happened in those games.
Game One: Syracuse Crunch 2, Marlies 0
The Marlies were shut out for just the second time this season by the Syracuse Crunch. Syracuse goalie Brandon Halverson stopped all 28 shots he faced in the game. The Crunch got goals from Milo Roelens and Jack Finley.
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The Marlies played lifeless, uninspired hockey for most of the game. However, with the score still 1-0 late in the third period, they were starting to push for the equalizer. Goalie Matt Murray’s misplayed puck ended their hopes. Murray played a soft dump-in in the corner to his right. With Jesse Ylönen bearing down on him, Murray fired the puck toward the boards from about 10 feet outside his crease. Unfortunately, the puck bounced off the boards and came right back to Ylönen, who immediately fired it at the net. Murray made the save standing just outside his crease and then attempted to clear the puck into the corner to his left. But this attempt bounced off Marlie defenseman Cade Webber’s skate right to Jack Finley. Finley had a wide-open net to deposit the puck, and it was game over.
The only good part of this game was the Marlies’ penalty kill. For unknown reasons, Toronto only showed much life when they were down a man. They generated better scoring chances when they were shorthanded than they did at five on five or on the power play. The Marlies took six penalties in the game and killed them all.
Game Two: Cleveland Monsters 3, Marlies 1
The Cleveland Monsters are a team the Marlies just cannot beat. Going into this game, they lost 14 straight matches versus the Monsters dating back November 2022.
The Marlies were just as flat in this game as they were for most of the game against the Syracuse Crunch. The best word to describe it is “unmotivated.” They were going through the motions, but their actions had no intensity. The Marlies are notorious for slow starts and this game was no exception; as they have for most of this season, Toronto gave up the first goal. Again, bad luck was involved in a Monsters’ tally when an attempted cross-crease pass by Stanislav Svozil to Rocco Grimaldi hit Matt Benning in the leg and went into the Toronto net behind Artur Akhtyamov.
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Cleveland took a 2-0 lead with just 1:47 left in the second period on a strange play. As the Monsters were breaking up ice with the puck, Topi Niemelä abandoned his side of the ice and skated over to Mikko Kokkonen’s side, with Kokkonen already there. Rather than helping Kokkonen, it seemed to catch him off-guard. As a result, Gavin Brindley snuck in behind both of them, took a pass from Owen Sillinger, and broke in alone on Akhtyamov. Akhtyamov tried to poke-check Brindley but failed, and Brindley flipped the puck up and over Akhtyamov’s stick into the net.
Cole Clayton took a slashing penalty at the 18:38 mark of the third period to give the Marlies a power play. Head Coach John Gruden took a chance and pulled Akhtyamov for an extra attacker, giving Toronto a six-on-four power play. It paid off as Alex Steeves wired a one-timer on a pass from Topi Niemelä to make the score 2-1 Cleveland with 59 seconds left in the game. As time wound down, the Marlies did get control of the puck, sending Akhtyamov back to the bench again. They didn’t generate much, and Dylan Gambrell scored a meaningless empty-net goal with one second left on the clock.
Akhtyamov played a great game, stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced and was not to blame for either goal. He didn’t get any offensive support. Once again, the only highlight for the Marlies in this game was their penalty kill. They killed all three chances the Monsters had and created some chances of their own while down a man. They could be unbeatable if the Marlies bottle whatever motivates them when they are shorthanded and play like that, even at strength or power play.
Game Three: Cleveland Monsters 4, Marlies 2
The Marlies came out of the blocks with some intensity for the first time in the new year. The first period was one of the best periods they played all year, and they completely dominated the Monsters throughout the period. Toronto had seven great scoring chances in the game’s first seven minutes, while Cleveland did not get their first shot on net until the 14:20 mark of the period. The final shots in the opening frame were 13-3 Toronto, but the official scorer made an error on one of the three Monsters’ shots. It was a shot from outside the Toronto blue line, with a Cleveland player three feet into the zone. The scorer never corrected it.
Toronto opened the scoring at 14:04 of the first period. Webber got his stick on a Cleveland cross-ice pass just inside the Toronto blue line and knocked the puck out to center ice. Cedric Paré was the first player on the puck and broke in alone on Monsters’ goalie Jet Greaves. Greaves stopped Paré’s first shot, but Paré stuffed his own rebound under Greaves and into the net. This was Paré’s first game back after missing three due to an undisclosed injury. Paré previously took a vicious high stick to the mouth early in the game and headed for the dressing room but returned to give the Marlies the lead.
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In the second period, Toronto continued overpowering the Monsters but couldn’t beat Greaves. It wasn’t until the 9:30 mark of the second period that Cleveland would get their first good scoring chance. It came on the power play with Marshall Rifai in the box for tripping. Gavin Brindley skated down from the point into the corner to the right of the Marlies’ Murray. Brindley fired a wrist shot that beat Murray on the short side from the bottom of the faceoff circle near the boards to Murray’s right.
After the Marlies had wholly owned the game, the score was tied 1-1.
Alex Steeves would restore the one-goal lead on a Toronto power play at 6:31 of the third period. Steeves beat Greaves with a bit of a change-up on a one-timer from the top of the faceoff circle to Greaves’ right. The cross-ice pass from William Villeneuve was right into Steeves’ feet, putting Steeves in an awkward position. Steeves did not get good wood on the shot, which was the key to the goal. Greaves slid across his net to cover the shot, but because the puck was slower in getting there than Greaves expected, he slid right past the puck’s path. Either way, it gave the Marlies hope they might be on their way to their first win in 16 games against the Monsters.
That hope didn’t last long, as Cleveland scored 1:19 later to tie the game back up when Cameron Butler beat Murray under his blocker arm from the top of the faceoff circle to Murray’s left. The shot was unblocked, and Murray had a clear sightline on it. He just missed it.
The winning goal was a comedy of errors for the Marlies. The play started with a pass by Alex Nylander to Villeneuve just outside the Toronto blue line. Instead of heading up ice with the puck, Villeneuve returned it to Nylander, who exited the zone. Perhaps Nylander was not expecting the pass back or Villeneuve missed him, but the puck went past Nylander’s outstretched stick right to Luca Del Bel Belluz. Murray expected Del Bel Belluz to shoot the puck and slid quickly to his right to stop the shot. The shot never came, as Del Bel Belluz went behind the net and tried a wraparound. Murray made a diving stop on the wraparound, but the puck went off of Murray right to Grimaldi, who had nothing but net to deposit the puck.
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Gambrell would close out the scoring with an empty-net goal off of a giveaway by Steeves with 44 seconds left in the game.
Murray had an up-and-down game. He made some great saves, including three in a row in a mad scramble around the Toronto net when the game was tied 2-2. He would like to have back two of the goals he gave up.
Individual Marlies Players Highlights
With only three goals scored in the three games, there is little to report regarding strong individual Marlies’ success. The only skater to have more than one point was Steeves, with a goal and an assist. Paré and Nylander had the other two goals. Joe Blandisi, Niemelä, Webber, and Villeneuve each had one assist.
Despite losing two games and seeing his record fall to 4-3-1, Murray still has an excellent 2.00 goals against average (GAA) and a .922 save percentage (SV%) in ten starts. Akhtyamov has a much better win/loss record at 9-3-2 but a lower SV% (.903) and a higher GAA (2.65).
What’s Next for the Marlies?
With the three losses, the Marlies slipped to fourth place in the North Division standings. However, they still have games in hand over every team ahead of them. The Marlies have 39 points with 30 games played, while the Rochester Americans are first with 45 points in 33 games, the Monsters have 44 points with 34 games played, and the Laval Rocket have 42 points with 32 games played.
[Note: I want to thank long-time Maple Leafs and Marlies fan Stan Smith for collaborating with me on this post. Stan’s Facebook profile can be found here.]
