Toronto Marlies Blank Binghamton Devils 3-0

Toronto goaltender Calvin Pickard stopped all 23 shots he saw as the league leading Toronto Marlies secured their eighth straight win via a 3-0 shutout over the Binghamton Devils in front of a sellout crowd on Saturday at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena. It was Pickard’s first shutout of the season as he came on strong towards the end with the BDevils’ pressure at it’s peak.

Photo provided by Alicia Strauch

Mackenzie Blackwood (5-12-4-1, 3.64 GAA 0.870 SV%) took the loss despite playing in his second straight game for Binghamton, as he gave up all three goals in the first 17:10 of the opening period, equaling his total on Friday’s contest in Springfield to within ten seconds. However, the Thunderbirds aren’t anywhere close to what the Marlies are as far as talent is concerned, as honestly, they looked to have coasted the rest of the way after their early lead.

But the Devils battled against themselves at the early stages when Devils’ defenseman Brian Strait forced a turnover on an awful, no look backhanded pass that landed on the stick of Andreas Johnsson at center ice, which ended up for a breakaway goal as the puck slithered through Blackwood’s pads just 68 seconds in. Not the way to begin the night being down early to any team, especially Toronto.

Just short of five minutes after, Marlies’ forward Jean Dupuy scored his first goal in eight games as he skated uncontested into the offensive zone and placed the puck short side of Blackwood into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

With BDevil’s rookie Nathan Bastian in the box for the second time of back-to-back calls, Jeremy Bracco fought for a loose puck by the side of the cage and flipped it high, past a sprawled out Blackwood for his fourth of the season on the power play at 17:10.

That would conclude all the scoring between the two clubs as their wasn’t much more to add to this one except a late push by the Devils, aided by some rowdiness from the home crowd, but Pickard stood tall in coming up with some big saves to secure the Marlies’ victory.

Line-Ups

Forwards; Quenneville-Kennedy-Bastian, Kearns-Rooney-Lappin, Baddock-Pietila-Thomson, Morris-Penny-Mandat. Defensemen; Strait-Mueller, Loov-MacDonald, Kapla-Dyblenko. In Goal; Mackenzie Blackwood. Back up; Colin Stevens. Scratches; Austin Cangelosi (inj.), Brandon Gignac (inj.), Josh Jacobs (inj.), Blake Speers (inj.) Michael Latta (inj.), Eddie Lack (inj.), Terrence Wallin and Colton White. Kearns, Loov and Rooney with the A’s.

Random Post Game Notes

• Toronto has the #1 goalie in the league Garret Sparks, and #4 in Pickard as he earned his shutout in the third period with some really good saves.
• This more likely will be the final game of defenseman Mirco Mueller’s conditioning stint in Binghamton. He looked ready to go and made some fine plays, including getting a stick on what looked to be a sure goal in the second period for Toronto.
• Marlies with a 19-4-0-0 road record, by far the best in the AHL, while the BDevils sank to a league worse 6-12-3-0 at home.

Three Stars

#1.) Andreas Johnsson (1g, 1a), #2.) Calvin Pickard (23 saves), #3.) Jean Dupuy (1g)

Video Highlights

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Upcoming Games

Binghamton Devils are off until next weekend with a pair of games against Utica at home on Friday, and on the road Saturday against the WBS Penguins.