Sunday afternoon the Marlies played the Binghamton Devils at the Scotiabank Arena. It was their second game in a row against the Devils, losing to them on Saturday; and it was the third game in a row for the weekend, losing to the Belleville Senators on Friday night.

Adam Brooks and Kasimir Kaskisuo returned as the Marlies were B-Deviled by a 2-1 loss

Prior to the weekend games they had also lost to the Laval Rocket on  Tuesday. It had not been a great week for the Marlies heading in to Sunday’s game and someone had to step up for a win.

As you’ll see below, Mason Marchment made it happen, with some help from a particular few other teammates.

Sunday’s Marlies Lines

Dmytro Timashov - Chris Mueller - Jeremy Bracco
Pierre Engvall - Josh Jooris - Carl Grundstrom
Mason Marchment - Adam Brooks - Trevor Moore
Colin Greening - Brady Ferguson - Giorgio Estephan

Calle Rosen - Timothy Liljegren
Rasmus Sandin - Vincent LoVerde
Andrew Nielsen - Frankie Corrado

Eamon McAdam started in net and Kasimir Kaskisuo was the backup (he played in Saturday’s game)

Sam Gagner was recalled from a loan to the Marlies back to the Vancouver Canucks before the start of the game and is gone, possibly for the rest of the season as even if they choose not to keep him around, he doesn’t have to be returned to the AHL on a loan to the Marlies.

Eddie Lack was in net for the Devils. Yes, you read that correctly. That is where Eddie Lack has been hiding lately. You know who else has played a few games for the B-Devils this season? Cory Schneider on a conditioning loan. We joke about goalies being impossible to predict for many reasons, from unexpected injuries, to early season losing streaks, but, could you imagine four years ago hearing that both Lack and Schneider would be playing some AHL games?

The Devils also still have infamous WJC goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, whom is actually putting up legitimately top-of-the-league numbers with a 0.930 all-situations sv% this season. That WJC championship feels like it was ages ago, but it was only three years.

The Goals

This recap is a little late, so let’s focus on some highlights now, shall we? If there’s one player who made himself stand out on the scoresheet on Sunday it’s Marchment.

He had another goal too, but we’ll get to that one later. First let’s take a look at Calle Rosen, who was making a lot of shot attempts all game from back at the blue line and finally had one go in.

This was Rosen’s second goal of the season, but he sits with 13 assists. That’s 15 points in 16 games. Not bad. I will ignore that cross-checking penalty called on him because that was dumb.

He was playing with Liljegren and I have to say based mostly on my own viewing of games this season, and with some input from other PPP staff, there’s a consensus forming that Liljegren’s stock is on the way down, while Rosen’s is on the way up. There’s something to really like about Rosen every game. Meanwhile, Liljegren looks like he lost that spark he had last season. I have heard it proposed that he may be bored out of his mind in the AHL. I don’t know at all if that's true, but accept it's a  possibility.

Let’s get back to man of the game, Mason Marchment, and his OT winner.

Our own Kevin Papetti had high praise for him during this game.

Mason Marchment keeps getting better. He now’s now an adequate zone entry threat, a good net front PP specialist, and a takeaway artist. It’s easy to envision him playing NHL games next year.

Kevin doesn’t mess around with his scouting, folks. He’s putting Marchment in the category of a player who has not only developed rapidly in past years, but continues developing into a high level player who will at least get his shot in the NHL. This is an especially big shift, as he left him out of our Top 25 Under 25 this summer.

I had him at 25, but Katya ranked him highest at 19, noting his primary points per game were actually the same as Moore’s, who has already had a call up to the Leafs this season.

Post-Game Thoughts

The Marlies and Coach Sheldon Keefe all noted they played well both in both Sunday’s win and Saturday’s loss against the Devils.

You can’t avoid some credit for this win going to Eamon McAdam. He was really good. I know directly above I noted how the development of goalies is unpredictable, especially at such a young age, but, I like to have nice things, and right now McAdam looks like one hell of a nice thing to have!

On Monday, Ferguson and Estephan were returned on loan to the Newfoundland Growlers. The Growlers are making a swing through Florida this weekend, stopping Wednesday in Jacksonville and then playing the Solar Bears on the weekend. All of this could mean that Adam Cracknell is getting close to returning from an injury, though it was implied by Keefe he would be out longer for than through this weekend. There is also Rich Clune waiting in the wings who has played only one game so far this season. I am not sure if he is injured or not. It could also mean the Growlers are going to cycle back some other players like J.J. Piccinich. We’ll have to wait and see.

Oh, let’s not forget the allegedly small Rasmus Sandin continues to impress. Watch him here along the boards wearing number 8.

The Next Game

The next week for the Marlies is an odd one on the schedule. They will travel out to Cleveland to play the Monsters on Friday, then face them back here at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Sunday (there’s no game on Saturday this week). After that they will go all the way back to Cleveland to play the Monsters again on Wednesday. I hope everyone is prepared to spend a lot of time on the bus.

Here’s the game recap from the Marlies.

Toronto Marlies