A tough loss is not how you want your first game in a new league to go, but Andreas Johnson played his game well.
The Series
The Marlies have lost the winning formula they used against the Albany Devils in the regular season. The key ingredient was, as always, outscoring their opponent, particularly late in the game.
Two things are getting in their way: the Devils have beefed up their lineup with an NHL defenceman, and the Marlies are not getting scoring from some of their usual suspects.
A look at the playoff scoring stats for the league shows the surprising appearance of Connor Carrick at the top with 10 points.