The final game of the Colemans Cup exhibition series, and of the IceCaps’ pre-season calendar, went Sunday afternoon in Gander, Newfoundland. The Marlies have already technically won the bragging rights to the Colemans Cup by winning the first two games of this series, but the calendar called for three games to be played regardless.
After the first two games had rosters filled with tryouts and ECHL-bound players, the IceCaps presented a lineup that is much more representative of what the final version will look like when the season starts on Friday.
One major roster adjustment to note was Saturday’s trade of Tim Bozon — who had two points in game two for St. John’s — to the Florida Panthers for defenceman Jonathan Racine.
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Charles Hudon | Chris Terry | Nikita Scherbak |
| Stefan Matteau | Jacob de la Rose | Max Friberg |
| Bobby Farnham | Mark MacMillan | Jeremy Gregoire |
| David Broll | Markus Eisenschmid | Connor Crisp |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Joel Hanley | Brett Lernout |
| Philip Samuelsson | Ryan Johnston |
| Tom Parisi | Josiah Didier |
| Goaltenders |
| Charlie Lindgren |
| Zachary Fucale |
The Toronto Marlies continued with a lineup that was heavy in ECHL Orlando Solar Bears players, and so on paper the odds seemed to favour the IceCaps, but sadly fate would deal an uppercut to the odds, as the Marlies completed a sweep of the IceCaps, coming back again to beat them 4-2 on Sunday afternoon.
The game started somewhat slow, with the first shot on net only coming at the seven-minute mark by Jacob de la Rose. He demonstrated good chemistry with Stefan Matteau throughout the game, borne from necessity for two players facing the prospect of a final season in the organization unless they begin to impress, as their contracts are set to expire at the conclusion of the year.
Marlies rookie goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo shutout the IceCaps in the first game of the Colemans Cup, but couldn’t duplicate that effort during this game. St. John’s opened the scoring at 15:09 when Chris Terry took a pass from Nikita Scherbak on a two-on-one rush and slipped the puck past the Finnish goaltender.
Brett Lernout doubled the IceCaps lead with a shot from the point — one of his major weapons on the ice — at the very beginning of the second period. The team was cruising with an easy 2-0 advantage in a sleepy game that saw very few shots.
A delay to the game caused by an issue with the glass halted the momentum for the IceCaps in the second, and that’s when the Marlies surged ahead, scoring three goals on five shots against Charlie Lindgren, who had by far his worst performance to date as a member of the Canadiens organization.
On the first goal, Lindgren failed to squeeze his pads and the puck was slid under him into the net. On the second he gave up a juicy rebound, and the third was a complete collapse of the IceCaps’ penalty-kill formation, resulting in a power-play breakaway goal for the Marlies. The Marlies left for the dressing room after 40 minutes up 3-2.
Lindgren managed to keep the IceCaps in the game with a big glove save at the start of the third period, which motivated his squad to became the aggressors. They pounded the Marlies with 15 shots in the third, but none were able to beat replacement goaltender Jeff Glass, who shut the door on the IceCaps for the second half of the game.
The Marlies sealed the victory on a power-play goal midway through the third period, winning the game 4-2.
The final shots were 27-12 in favour of the IceCaps. The Marlies scored their two power-play goals on three opportunities, while the IceCaps failed to score on their three man-advantage opportunities. Lernout was the best IceCap on the ice, and earned the second star of the game.
Scratches for the IceCaps included Yannick Veilleux, Mathieu Corderre-Gagnon, Jeremie Blain, Justin Baker, Stefano Momesso, Phil DeSimone, Dalton Thrower, Daniel Audette, newcomer Jonathan Racine, and Marc Barberio, who arrived to Newfoundland and is with the team but has yet to play.
And thus ended the pre-season calendar for the IceCaps.
Overall during the course of this three game series, the IceCaps’ goalies fared quite poorly.
| SA | SV | SV% | TOI | GAA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zachary Fucale | 52 | 46 | .885 | 91:51 | 3.91 |
| Charlie Lindgren | 23 | 19 | .826 | 90:00 | 2.67 |
In a striking reminder of last year’s scoring woes, the IceCaps’ offence was also absent, although that is not too surprising given the mainly tryout-heavy lineup that the IceCaps iced most nights.
| Name | GP | G | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRISP, Connor | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| BOZON, Tim | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| MacMILLAN, Mark | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| LERNOUT, Brett | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| TERRY, Chris | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| PARISI, Thomas | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| SCHERBAK, Nikita | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| FARNHAM, Bobby | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| SAMUELSSON, Philip | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| DESIMONE, Philip | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| BLAIN, Jérémie | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| MATTEAU, Stefan | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| EISENSCHMID, Markus | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GRÉGOIRE, Jeremy | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BROLL, David | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DIDIER, Josiah | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AUDETTE, Daniel | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FRIBERG, Max | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| THROWER, Dalton | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| CODERRE-GAGNON, Mathieu | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MOMESSO, Stefano | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| VEILLEUX, Yannick | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BAKER, Justin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DE LA ROSE, Jacob | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| HUDON, Charles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| HANLEY, Joel | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| JOHNSTON, Ryan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BARBERIO, Mark | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The IceCaps go back to St. John’s for a final practice to end training camp. From the tryouts, David Broll appears closest to earning a spot with the team due to his tenacious nature, although Yannick Veilleux appeared to do well, at times playing an offensive role with the team. The fate of the six tryouts will certainly be known shortly, although the IceCaps can choose to simply keep certain tryouts for up to 25 games, as the terms of a PTO entail.
The first game of the regular season is Friday, October 14. Hopefully the IceCaps that show up then are much better than the ones that showed up for the three games of the Colemans Cup.
