The Toronto Maple Leafs‘ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, had a challenging week as they pushed through a tough stretch of games to start the new year. With one win and two losses, the team’s performances were a mix of resilience and missed opportunities. Despite dominating in some games, struggles on special teams, injuries, and a lack of consistency plagued their efforts. Here’s a closer look at the past week’s key moments and the lessons that can be learned for the team moving forward.
Game One: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 6 – Marlies 3
Artur Akhtyamov had the worst period of his short professional career, and special teams were the deciding factors in this game. Akhtyamov allowed three goals on six shots, including two that he missed. Both were unscreened wrist shots by Ville Koivunen from the top of the faceoff circle.
Related: NHL Rumors: Avalanche, Blue Jackets, Canucks, Maple Leafs
The first shot caught Akhtyamov by surprise. Koivunen slowly skated the puck into the Toronto zone and appeared to be waiting for someone to pass when he fired a wrist shot at the net. Akhtyamov thought Koivunen would pass and wasn’t prepared for the shot. He was squared up and expecting Koivunen to shoot on the second one, but he failed to make the save. The third goal was a point shot on the power play through a screen that Akhtyamov couldn’t see until it was too late.
Later in the first period, while focusing on a penalty taken by Koivunen in the Penguins’ zone, Akhtyamov skated to the bench, favouring his left leg. He struggled to put weight on it and was helped up the stairs behind the bench into the dressing room. The last play Akhtyamov made was to stop a clear-in from center ice and pass the puck up to Ryan Tverberg at the Marlies’ blue line. He looked fine when the camera panned away from him, but he was limping to the bench the next time we saw him. Matt Murray came in to replace him.
It was a frustrating period for the Marlies. They carried the play and led 2-1 at one point, thanks to goals by Nikita Grebenkin and Jacob Quillan, but went into the first intermission down 3-2.
Fraser Minten Scores to Tie the Game
Fraser Minten tied the game at 3-3 when he took a pass from Grebenkin behind the Penguins’ net and wired a wrist shot past goalie Filip Larsson. The Marlies completely dominated play for the first two periods, outshooting the Penguins 27-14. The 3-3 score after 40 flattered the Penguins. If not for Larsson’s play, the score could have been much worse for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Related: Can Cowan & Minten Crack the Maple Leafs’ Roster?
Toronto dominated play partly because the Penguins took three penalties in the latter half of the period. While the Marlies had their chances with the extra man, they could not get the puck past Larsson. The Penguins took a fourth penalty to begin the third period, but once again, Toronto could not capitalize on it.
It was inevitable that the referees would eventually call something to even up the penalties. Sure enough, Matt Benning was called for holding when he reached out with one hand and pushed a Penguins player to the ice. It was a cheap call, and it ultimately cost Toronto as former Marlie Filip Krall blasted a one-timer from the point past Murray before he could get over to cover it. Emil Bemstrom put the Penguins up by two goals just 1:09 later. A shot by Koivunen hit the post and then hit Murray in the back. Before Murray or anyone else could get their stick on it, Bemstrom reached in and tapped it over the goal line.
Koivunen completed the hat trick and picked up his fourth point with an empty-net goal at 18:45. The Penguins scored twice on four power-play chances and added an empty-net goal. The Marlies were 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
Game Two: Marlies 3, Syracuse Crunch 2
The Marlies broke their four-game losing streak and picked up their first win of 2025 with a 3-2 victory over the Crunch in Syracuse in game one of their 10-game road trip. This was by far their best effort of the new year. Grebenkin got the Marlies on the board first when he scored a carbon-copy goal to the one he opened the scoring with against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins in their previous game. Minten fed Grebenkin the puck this time, who one-timed it past Syracuse goalie Brandon Halverson from the faceoff dot to Halverson’s left with 2:14 left in the first period. It was the first time the Marlies got a puck past Halverson in close to four periods. He shut out Toronto the last time the two teams met.
Related: Is It Time for Nicholas Robertson to Leave the Maple Leafs?
There was no scoring again until Alex Steeves put the Marlies up 2-0 at 12:12 of the third period. Steeves was about three feet in front of the Crunch goal when Nick Abruzzese fed him with a blind backhand pass from behind the goal line to Halverson’s left. Steeves blasted a one-timer past Halverson before he could react. Just 17 seconds later, Grebenkin swatted a puck past Halverson out of mid-air after a shot from Alex Nylander bounced off a body.
The way Matt Murray played made it seem like he would help the Marlies return the favour to Syracuse, who won their last meeting 3-0. That was until Steeves was called for a strange interference penalty at 16:58 of the third period. Steeves lifted a Crunch player’s stick to steal the puck. The Syracuse player, who had one hand on the stick then, let it go. Steeves did not use any unusual force and did not slash at the stick, as you would typically see when this type of penalty is called. But the penalty was called.
On the ensuing power play, the Syracuse coach pulled Halverson for the second extra attacker, and the plan worked. Jujhar Khaira got his stick on the puck during a scramble in front of the Toronto net and banged it past Murray. With 51 seconds left on the clock, the Crunch made the game enjoyable when a shot from Gabriel Fortier hit Murray in the shoulder and bounced up and over his shoulder into the goal.
That was it for the scoring, as the Marlies shut things down in the last 51 seconds.
Game Three: Utica Comets 4, Marlies 1
The Marlies saw their record in the New Year fall to 1-4 with a lifeless effort against the Utica Comets. This game started well for Toronto as Steeves had not one but two cracks at a one-timer from his usual spot stationed on the faceoff dot to the left of Comets goalie Jeremy Brodeur (son of Hall-of-Famer Martin Brodeur) on a Marlies’ power play. Steeves connected on his second attempt to put Toronto up 1-0 at 3:07 of the first period.
The lead lasted until 15:57, when Alex Nylander turned the puck over once, got it back, and turned it again inside the Toronto blue line. Filip Engaras split Benning and Mikko Kokkonen, walked in on Marlies goalie Vyacheslav Peksa, deked from his backhand to his forehand, and tucked the puck behind Peksa into the net.
Related: Maple Leafs Loss to Canucks Exposes Major Concerns
The game remained tied at 1-1 until the 18:50 mark of the second period. Brian Halonen banged home a rebound from a point shot by Dmitry Osipov that had fallen to Peksa’s feet. Halonen got his stick on the puck before Peksa could drop on it.
Utica added to their lead at 12:22 of the third period after Abruzzese gave the puck away inside the Comets’ blue line. Halonen and Nolan Foote (son of former NHLer Adam Foote) broke up the ice and entered the Toronto zone. Peksa made a kick save on Halonen. However, the rebound came right to Foote, who had a wide-open net.
After Shane Bowers took a delay-of-game penalty at 15:32 of the third, Marlies head coach John Gruden tried the same tactic that worked for Syracuse in the previous game and pulled Peksa for an extra attacker. That failed when Topi Niemela put the puck on Max Willman‘s stick inside the Utica blue line. Willman sent the puck out to center ice, where Foote was the first player to get to it. Foote had all the time in the world to skate down and deposit the puck into the empty net to close out the scoring at 4-1 for the Comets.
Individual Marlies Player Highlights
The Minten-Grebenkin-Nylander line accounted for four of the Marlies’ seven goals of the week. Grebenkin had three and added an assist, giving him four points over three games. Minten flipped those numbers with a goal and three assists, while Nylander contributed three assists.
Steeves scored a pair of goals and sat third in AHL goal scoring with 19 goals, two goals behind first-place Rory Kerins of the Calgary Wranglers. Steeves and Logan Shaw have been selected to play in the AHL All-Star Classic on Feb. 2 and 3. Jacob Quillan scored the other goal. Abruzzese and Kokkonen each had two assists.
Murray backstopped the Marlies to their only win of the week and finished with 36 saves on 40 shots in five periods of action. Akhtyamov took the loss in the game he was injured in, and Peksa took the other loss in his first AHL start. Peksa was called up from the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones because of Akhtyamov’s injury. He had one other appearance for the Marlies in relief of Akhtyamov, a 7-2 loss to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Dec. 20.
What’s Next for the Marlies?
The Marlies fly to Winnipeg later this week to play games against the Manitoba Moose on Friday and Sunday before heading to the West Coast. They will spend the remainder of January there.
[Note: I want to thank long-time Maple Leafs fan Stan Smith for collaborating with me on this post. Stan’s Facebook profile can be found here.]
