(CP) — Mark Arcobello and Philippe Cornet each had a goal and an assist and Yann Danis made 27 saves as the Oklahoma City Barons evened the American Hockey League Western Conference finals with a 5-1 victory in Game 2 on Friday.
Ryan Keller, Teemu Hartikainen and Chris VandeVelde also scored for Oklahoma City, which connected on the power play once in seven chances.
Left-winger Will Acton scored the lone goal for the Marlies, who will host the next three games of the best-of-seven series starting on Monday afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum.
After easing to 5-0 victory on Thursday, Toronto head coach Dallas Eakins knew Oklahoma City would come out with more intensity. Arcobello did just that and scored four minutes into the game with a power-play goal.
Heading into Game 2, Toronto had stopped its opponents’ previous 39 power-play attempts.
With nine seconds remaining in the first period, Hartikainen scored on a slap shot to give Oklahoma City a 2-0 lead and momentum heading into the second.
Cornet scored at 16:49 of the second to make it 3-0 with an assist by Arcobello.
Acton broke up Danis’ shut out bid at 9:21 of the third to make up for being stopped on a breakaway in the second period. It was the winger’s first professional playoff goal.
VandeVelde made it 4-1 at 16:25 and Keller added an empty-netter with 2:32 left to play after Eakins pulled goalie Ben Scrivens, who finished with 22 saves on 26 shots.
Western Conference Finals – Series “N” (best-of-7)
1-Oklahoma City Barons vs. 2-Toronto Marlies
Game 1 – Thurs., May 17 – Toronto 5, OKLAHOMA CITY 0
Game 2 – Fri., May 18 – OKLAHOMA CITY 5, Toronto 1
Game 3 – Mon., May 21 – Oklahoma City at Toronto, 3:00
Game 4 – Wed., May 23 – Oklahoma City at Toronto, 7:00
Game 5 – Fri., May 25 – Oklahoma City at Toronto, 7:00
*Game 6 – Mon., May 28 – Toronto at Oklahoma City, 8:00
*Game 7 – Wed., May 30 – Toronto at Oklahoma City, 8:00
