In a matchup filled with players who have played a portion, if not the majority of the season against the NHL likes of the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens, this Albany Devils-Toronto Marlies series may turn on the smallest and unexpected of reasons — such as a player who battled most of the year against the Unions and the RPIs of the hockey world.
This series, ridiculously even involving the two best teams in the AHL, could come down to something such as an amateur tryout getting ice time.
Nick Lappin was playing for Brown through March, then brought into Albany for a look-see ahead of starting his pro career in the fall. He stuck in the lineup ahead of veteran players with the team all season.
On Sunday night, he was the best player on the ice in the Devils’ thrilling comeback 3-2 overtime win at Times Union Center. Eleven shots. The game-tying goal, then the game-winner. On a team filled with speedsters and goal scorers and big hitters, there was anticipation reserved this night for when this rookie stepped onto the ice.
Then he delivered.
“Some days as a coach you get a good feeling about it. I had a good feeling about him,” coach Rick Kowalsky said. “He has a knack around the net. He is one of those guys who, when he’s on, the puck seems to follow him a little bit.”
It followed the 23-year-old everywhere. He was a the difference between two teams separated by little else.
Halfway through Game 3 of their AHL series Sunday, the Devils and Marlies were tied at 1.
The series was tied at 1.
The shots on goal were tied at 10.
The Devils were the best home team in the AHL regular season.
The Marlies were the best road team.
In fact, the Marlies had the same record on the road that the Devils had at home because . . . of course they did.
The Marlies were the best offensive team in the league, as evidenced by the numerous open-ice chances if not flat-out breakaways they had.
The Devils were the best defensive team in the league, as shown by Ben Thomson laying out to make a sliding stick check to break up a breakaway by Josh Leivo, and Scott Wedgewood making and assortment of pad and block saves that at one point in the third had Marlie Zach Hyman stare him down with a *Really?*
Still, as good as Wedgewood was (25 saves), Antoine Bibeau was his equal if not better for Toronto with 36 saves.
So it went.
The Marlies look like they were going to take Game 3 and reclaim home ice in this best-of-seven series. They had it: A one-goal lead and a power play in the waning minute.
But in a matchup this wafer-thin tight, games and even series can turn on one player, or even one play.
Enter Lappin. With the Devils shorthanded — and they were shorthanded, it seemed, much of the night (eight penalty kills) — and time running out, the Devils were finally able to pull Wedgewood. Lappin fired a shot on net from the right circle, then circled behind the goal and popped out the other side.
The puck just finds him. And it did again. He poked in a rebound off a Damon Severson shot to tie the game with a mere 21 seconds to play.
It overtime, Lappin banged a rebound at Bibeau, then recovered his own rebound and shoved the puck past the goaltender for the game-winner. That whole puck finding him thing? It’s not just serendipity.
“It’s not luck,” Kowalsky said. “You have to go to those areas and you have to have good quick hands.”
Both these teams have great depth on both the front and back lines. Strengths are met with strengths. This series will turns on the smallest of plays — or, perhaps, the most unexpected of players.
“It’s two good teams and there are chances both ways,” Kowalsky said. “Big plays both ways. It’s physical.”
And, even though the Devils now lead 2-1, it’s pretty much dead even.
Categories: -Sports-
