The Marlies hosted the Laval Rocket last night, the top team in the division. It was a battle of a game, with the team's trading goal until it went to OT where the Marlies lost, 3-2. But it at least salvaed a point to keep them up to pace in the crowded middle of the North Division.

Here are the current standings in the North Division, sorted by points %.

The Marlies are now tied for third, though the tie-breaker goes to the Crunch. Every team is now in a chess game in the standings, with each division match-up meaning more and more with less than 30 games left in the season for most teams. The Rochester Americans are right on their heels and the Marlies don't want to once again drop into that play-in round used by the AHL.

The Marlies had Dennis Hildeby in net, freshly returned from his call-up to the Maple Leafs to cover for Anthony Stolarz, and playing in his first Marlies game in three months. The Rocket had highly-touted goalie prospect Jacob Fowler in net, who has had ten games with the Canadiens this season at only 21 years-old.

These two teams have a classic rivalry history, and so there's no surprise some fights broke out with Dakota Mermis taking out Jared Davidson quite easily while William Trudeau and Resse Johnson stale-mated each other.

On the whole of the game for the Marlies though, it was about setting up a shot and getting it past Fowler who really was fantastic in the game.

Highlights

Ryan Kirwan is a player who was undrafted and spent his development time in the NCAA for three years with Penn State and then one with Arizona State. He's spent most of his time with the Cincinnati Cyclones, but had a chance with two games on the Marlies last season, and now played his second game this season and notched his first AHL goal.

I asked Kirwan about what he's learning on his time with the Marlies and he said it's about "habits, focusing on what these guys do and what makes them pros. There's a lot of amazing players in there and lots of NHL games and lots of AHL games in there."

John Gruden said the leadership group goes out of its way to make that happen. "We're as coaching staff fortunate to have Benning and Shaw and Mermis and Johnstone and Johnson, and just the older group of guys are very welcoming. They they go about their business right. They prepare like pros should, you know."

Gruden added, This is still the second best hockey league in the world as far as I'm concerned, and if guys want to play there, they're going to have to still prepare like they're there, so for these young guys to learn from that is special and they're fortunate, and again, it makes our job easy as well."

Fowler lived up to his hype in the game, shutting down the Marlies with great saves multiple times.

The Marlies stayed down 2-1 late into the third period when Noah Chadwick got the second shot past Fowler and tied up the game with only 1:03 left on the clock.

Chadwick wound up in the Top 10 of our Leafs Top 25 Under 25 in the summer. You can find his profile and discussion about his abilities here:

2024 T25U25: Noah Chadwick is #10
Who is he, really?
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

The game went to OT and as mentioned earlier, the Rocket won it. The goal was by Laurent Dauphin who is the leader in points for the Rocket at 49 in 40 games.

Next Game

The Marlies will set sail again across Lake Erie to play the Cleveland Monsters on Tuesday before coming back to Toronto to face the Springfield Thunderbirds. Then they get a week off for the AHL All-Star Classic before returning to a gruelling schedule of 8 games in 15 days.

Here is the game recap.

Toronto Marlies