The Toronto Marlies captured the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the American Hockey League’s regular-season champions on Friday evening, earning a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Utica Comets in Utica, N.Y.
Under head coach Sheldon Keefe, the Marlies (51-18-1-2, 105 points, .729) will finish with the best record in the AHL for the second time in the last three seasons, and will have home-ice advantage for as long as they advance in the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Still with four games remaining on its schedule, Toronto has also wrapped up its fifth North Division title in the last seven years, and its sixth division crown overall.
The Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy, instituted in 1997, is named for the late Macgregor Kilpatrick, a longtime member of the AHL Board of Governors and a 2010 inductee into the AHL Hall of Fame.
