ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- An impressive power play made up for the Toronto Marlies missing several key players called up to the Maple Leafs' training camp.
Toronto scored three power-play goals and added another shorthanded en route to a 6-2 win over the St. John's IceCaps in American Hockey League action Saturday night.
Korbinian Holzer, Mark Fraser, Mike Kostka, Matt Frattin, Nazem Kadri and goaltender Ben Scrivens were summoned to the NHL camp set to open Sunday.
Despite the holes in his lineup, Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins was impressed with Toronto's power play.
"That's the great thing about our depth at forward especially, we've got guys that can put up points, they see the game offensively very well," said Eakins. "We didn't have to tweak much on our power play. We basically replaced Kostka with (Joe) Colborne, and he responded greatly."
Colborne, Keith Aucoin, Spencer Abbott, Greg Scott, Jerry D'Amigo and Carter Ashton each scored for Toronto (22-10-3).
Eric O'Dell scored two goals for St. John's (15-20-2), which has now lost seven in a row at home, and have not won a home game since defeating the Providence Bruins 6-0 on Nov. 25.
Colborne, who added two assists in the game, got a lot of praise from his coach for his play-making abilities.
"As we saw tonight, (Colborne) can pass the puck hard, he's quick with it, he sees the game great offensively," said Eakins.
IceCaps head coach Keith McCambridge said he liked his team's first shift, but not much after that. The IceCaps scored the opening goal just 12 seconds in when O'Dell beat Marlies goalie Jussi Rynnas on a breakaway.
"Well, I liked the first shift. I thought after that we didn't use our thought process the way it needed to be used. I thought we just weren't a very smart team for the remainder of the game," said McCambridge.
The period took a turn for the worst for the IceCaps, who would not register their second shot until the closing minutes of the period.
Toronto stung St. John's for two goals on the power play and one shorthanded before the end of the period.
Aucoin scored the Marlies first power-play goal at 8:47 after finishing off a back-post pass from Colborne. Toronto's power play struck with an identical goal at 10:22, with Colborne setting up Abbott at the back-post.
The IceCaps then suffered from a sloppy power play, which saw an Ivan Telegin pass intercepted by Scott, who went end-to-end for a short-handed goal at 14:18.
O'Dell, whose line with teammates Carl Klingberg and Ivan Telegin has been an offensive staple for St. John's, said the IceCaps' lack of discipline cost them in the first.
"We had a good start, a couple of bad penalties we took, and they capitalized on them," said O'Dell.
O'Dell scored his second goal of the game at 15:31 in the second period when he beat his marker to slapshot a rebound past Rynnas.
"It was kinda tough for us, we came back in here and just tried to get the guys going again. We had a good second period, but it was kind of tough," said O'Dell.
Colborne scored at 4:33 in the third to put the Marlies ahead 4-2, D'Amigo scored an empty-net goal at 18:18 and Ashton added another at 19:08
Rynnas made 18 saves while St. John's Eddie Pasquale stopped 18 shots.
Toronto finished 3 for 5 on the power play, while the IceCaps were 0 for 2.
