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Marlies Mikkelson Wins It in Overtime
Toronto Wins with 1.1 seconds left
Marlies Win in OT
By Gerry Cantlon
Eurohockey.net
TORONTO- Toronto Marlies playing shorthanded were able to beat the Hartford Wolf Pack 3-2 in overtime before 3.730 at the Ricoh Coliseum.
Defenseman Brendan Mikkelson coming down the RW off a turnover from newly acquired Swedish defenseman veteran Anders Eriksson beat rookie goalie Chad Johnson with a hard snap shot low glove side with just 1.1 seconds to go.
Toronto had just five defenseman and 15 players for the game.
The Wolf Pack tied the game at 2 when Donald Brashear, the NHL vet with 989 games scored his first Wolf Pack and first AHL goal since 1986 cruising into the Toronto zone put all 245 lbs. into a shot from pass coming off the LW boards that got pass from Derek Couture to beat James Reimer stickside at 7:22 of the third. Brashear earned his second star of the game.
Dale Weise had a marvelous backhand wraparound chance in the last 30 seconds Reimer kept out of the net preventing Hartford from getting the victory.
Hartford which has had it offensive difficulties put its most sustained pressure on the five defenseman the Marlies had in the last 5 minutes of third and outshot Toronto 14-8 after having just eight shots on goal in the first two periods.
In the second period the Marlies dominated puck control over Hartford limiting them to just 8 shots in 2 periods on goalie James Reimer. The Marlies extended their lead to 2-0 on the power as Justin Hodgeman deposited his 6th of the season coming in back door of the Wolf pack defense converting defenseman Eric Calder’s shot at 4:39.
Toronto took the lead in the last minute of the first period as Ryan Hamilton standing alone in front deflected Brendan Mikkelson’s shot from the right point at 19:16 for the only goal of the period.
The Wolf Pack despite a large disparity in puck possession used a late powerplay to cut the lead to 2-1. Eriksson recently acquired at the trade deadline from the Phoenix Coyotes snapped a hard shot from the right point Reimer made the save,but ex-Marlie and another newly acquired player center Kris Newbury rifled his shot at 17:41 and his first Wolf Pack goal.
The play made up for a blunder by Eriksson with a blind backhand pass that winger Dale Werse had to hustle back for to avoid a Marlies breakaway.
The game was a chippy affair with few penalty minutes throughout stemming from Hartford’s 6-1 thrashing of the Marlies back in December. Brashear seem to have an almost every shift confrontation with either Greg Scott, Brennan Evans or Andre Deveaux.
Combined with Bridgeports 2-1 overtime win in Manchester the Wolf Pack seeking a franchise streak of 13 consecutive playoff seasons trails the Sound Tigers by four points,but have won just three times in the last 15 games.
Story added on 8th March 2010 at 00:29 GMT
Story submitted by: Gerry Cantlon.
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