The Marlies came out of Winnipeg with two standings points, but it took a frustrating route to get there: back-to-back overtime losses to the Manitoba Moose, 2-1 on Friday and 4-3 on Saturday.
That capped a three-game week during their Royal Winter Fair road trip. Toronto handled the Hamilton Hammers 5-1 on Wednesday night, then headed west and split nothing in Winnipeg, dropping both games in extra time.
There were some roster shuffles along the way. Bo Groulx returned after seven games with the Leafs, while Ben Danford was unavailable because of injury. To help cover for Cole McWard, who was called up to the Leafs, the Marlies brought in defencemen Ben Meehan and Frank Djurasevic from the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Friday’s game was a tight one, and Toronto’s lone goal came from Marc Johnstone. It was enough to get the Marlies level, but not enough to finish the job. Steve Sullivan said the game had chances on both sides despite the low score.
“Yeah, like you said, it was low event, but I felt like on both teams there was a lot of grade-A scoring chances [where] the breakdowns became some grade-As. Both goaltenders had to make some really, really big saves, even though there wasn’t a ton of scoring chances in the whole hockey game.”
Saturday brought more offense, and Johnstone was at it again with another strong finish. Toronto’s push was about more than just the goal itself; the Marlies needed the equalizer with enough time left to keep pressing for more.
Instead, the night’s low point came on a shorthanded goal by Chase Yoder. The breakdown started while the Marlies were on a five-on-three, and Yoder scored shortly after leaving the penalty box on a sequence that turned into a two-on-one and then a breakaway.
Sullivan said the line changes he made on Saturday were an attempt to jump-start the group.
“I actually changed the lines late in the second period. So I had put Valis with Holinka and Tverberg.
I kind of shifted things around, just looking for a spark. Even going back to yesterday’s game too, we only scored one goal yesterday, and we had-I mean, we only had one today [at that point in the game], so I figured I had to try to change something up and see if some of the other guys can kind of get a little bit of chemistry and just kind of get some spark going.”
On the shorthanded goal, he pointed to a lost battle and a quick transition the other way.
“Yeah, we’re-we’re pressing hard. We’re trying to-right?
We’re trying to shrink the zone. It’s five-on-three and we just kind of lose a little bit of a battle right there and the puck kind of trickles out and, they’re coming out of the box and they get a two-on-one which kind of springs into a breakaway and the guy makes a good play.”
The Marlies left Winnipeg with two points, but it didn’t feel like a clean win of a weekend. Sullivan said the team had chances to take more.
“You know, the way we played in spurts, I think we could have found a way to get a few more points out of this, maybe get a win out of this instead of just two overtime losses. It’s fine but I think that when we look back at this it’s some points that we left on the table.”
There was also a positive note on Noah Chadwick, who is in his second full season with the Marlies after being drafted by the Leafs in the sixth round in 2023. Sullivan said the 21-year-old is trending the right way, while also pushing for a more assertive game.
“He continues to get better. We want him to be a little bit more assertive in his play.
We want him to be a little bit harder to play against as a defenseman. He’s tall, he’s got a long reach and we like all that about him.
It’s a matter of trying to make sure he is harder to play against. We know that he can make some plays on the offensive from the blue line, we don’t want to take that away from him, and today was a good example of that?
He took the puck off the wall, he was able to walk the blue line, attack the net, and we had a good screen in front of him and he ended up burying it and got us going, so it was a really good goal by him.”
Danford’s situation has since become clearer. A Marlies representative said the team was “waiting for more information” after Saturday, with the next leg of the trip set to include Syracuse on Friday and Providence on Sunday. That update came Monday, when the team learned Danford has a broken wrist and is now week-to-week.
It’s a setback for a young player trying to stack up pro games, though the injury could have been worse. For now, the focus shifts to recovery and a return-to-play process that could put him back in the mix right after the holidays, or even before.
Toronto’s next game is Friday in Syracuse against the Crunch.
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