Last weekend did not go well for the Marlies. The team had two games against the Rockford IceHogs which sit near the bottom of the standings in the entire league, or at least they did until they won both games, so the IceHogs are now in a three-way tie for second-last with the Texas Stars and San Jose Barracuda, with the Hamilton Hammers taking the title of the worst, all by points%. The IceHogs are the affiliates of the Chicago Blackhawks. It's a common mistake to think that the Chicago Wolves would be that team, but instead the Wolves are the affiliates of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The IceHogs have actually been around a long time in Rockford, but the most recent meeting against the Marlies was on March 1, 2023 where the Marlies beat the IceHogs 5–3. Some names on the roster from that day are still on the team, like Marshall Rifai and Marc Johnstone, some have retired, like Kyle Clifford, now in player development for the Leafs, some haved moved on in the NHL, like Pontus Holmberg who has 10 points in 13 games(!), and some have gone abroad, like Erik Källgren who was the goalie for that game, now back in the SHL after time with the Leafs and Marlies and Filip Král who is playing in Czechia. Then there's the ones you cannot remember ever being there, like Orrin Centazzo, who to his credit is still playing over in the French league for a team called the Les Ducs d'Angers.

But that game was almost four years ago and the Marlies had not played the IceHogs since, but some video review was expected to help and so was the return of Artur Akhtyamov. It didn't work out that way, though they managed one standings point from an OT loss. The Marlies were also down one prolific goal scorer in Vinni Lettieri, as he was called up to the Maple Leafs where this happened:

However, things went much better on Friday night, with the Marlies winning 5–3 against the Bears, though it was a back and forth game loaded with special teams. In fact, of the total eight goals scored, five were on power plays, one was on an empty net, and only two were at even strength. Sammy Hlavaj was in net for the Marlies and Cal Petersen was in net for the Bears, yes, that is the same guy who was a starter for the LA Kings for a few years. Another two familiar names on the Bears are ex-Leafs Justin Holl and Joey Anderson.

Highlights

Borya Valis gets his first of the season, and then his second goal of the season, both a long time coming after many shots that missed the net in the past few games. The first is one of the only two even-strength goals of the game. The second, well, Valis had a little help on scoring it from the Bears.

Here's the first. If you look closely you can see Justin Holl (#4) defending no one there.

And the more hilarious second goal.

This goal by Ryan Tverberg is his third of the season. The start is a shot by Brisson and along the way Aatu Räty gets his stick on it for a blip and then Tverberg finally deflects it in.

Then we have this goal by Logan Shaw which is crazy to get his own rebound that far out.

After the game, Ryan Tverberg laughed about him getting his own rebound from so far out and laughed saying "The double one-timer. We were talking about it. It's like something out of a video game."

Coach Sullivan continued his praise of the Captain's contributions, saying "He's all situations, right? If we're up one, we're down one, power play, penalty kill, a big faceoff that I need on the right side, he's coming in there. He understands all of the situations, so it's very hard to look down the bench and look for who's the best option that I have at that point and not see Logan Shaw there, and then obviously the big goal that he scores in the power play, like, it was a good rotation. It wasn't really his spot that we had set up in our pre-scout, but they had made a good move motion from it and he scores a big goal for us."

Upcoming Games

The Marlies now hit the road as the arena is taken over for The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, at least, sort of on the road for now. They play their next games today in Belleville against the Senators, and then in Hamilton against the Hammers on Wednesday, so they will certainly stay here at their home base in Toronto for those games. After that, the Marlies will take the train to Winnipeg to play the Moose next weekend, and then go visit the Atlantic Division for games against the Syracuse Crunch and Providence Bruins before returning to Toronto for back-to-back games against the Chicago Wolves on November 21 and 22, facing them for the first time since they defeated them to win the Calder Cup last season.

Here is the game highlights from Friday night.

Toronto Marlies