On Friday, the Marlies hosted Lehigh Valley, and trailed in that game deep into the third period, 2-0.

Sam Carrick got things going with a power play goal, and Brendan Leipsic tied it up with two and a half minutes to play.

Colin Smith got the overtime winner, and T.J. Brennan, Leipsic and Tobias Lindberg all had two-point nights.

Read the full recap here.

Josh Leivo and Frederik Gauthier were held out of Friday's game in case the injury-plagued Leafs needed them Saturday. They did, so they missed all three games, and the Marlies were short manpower like never before.

They found a new forward to try out on Saturday, Tylor Spink, and you can read about the Saturday loss here.

They might have lost the Saturday game, but they still ended up clinching their playoff spot that night, the first team to get the X by their name in the standings.

Sunday afternoon, the Marlies travelled to Cleveland to go monster hunting, and with Mark Arcobello out with some bumps and bruises, they were really pressed for bodies. Tylor Spink played a 4-in-4 as a result, since he'd played in the ECHL on Thursday and Friday.

The Marlies took the game 4-1 relying on the grinders to bring the offence. And Antoine Bibeau to stop everything Lake Erie had to throw at him. The day after rumours started to circulate about the Leafs signing an SHL goalie, Bibeau came up trumps.

Éric Faille, John Kurtz (a 26-year-old on a PTO) and Rich Clune got the goals, and T.J. Brennan topped up his points totals with an empty netter. Spink ended up losing his assist to a change in official scoring, but I'm with Crocker, he gets to keep it in my book.

It was a tough and gritty performance to carve a win out of a bad game, but they were up to it. It would be nice to see some of the big names on the team step up right now. This is where Kasperi Kapanen, Leipsic, Smith and Lindberg need to show their stuff. Some are, some aren't, and you can bet that's getting noticed.