Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The Toronto Marlies are living close to the edge these Calder Cup Playoffs.
Tonight, they have a chance to blow the Eastern Conference Finals wide open.
Back-to-back road wins have put the Marlies in possession of a 2-0 series lead in their best-of-seven match-up with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Michael Pezzetta has been the late-game hero both times, scoring with 1:36 to go in Game 1 for a 4-2 victory before his overtime goal in Game 2 gave the Marlies a 2-1 victory.
The Marlies are back home for Game 3 tonight after a week on the road. They closed out the North Division finals in Cleveland before heading directly to Wilkes-Barre. Coca-Cola Coliseum life has been good to the Marlies, who got their opening-round best-of-three series with the Rochester Americans by taking the deciding Game 3 in Toronto. Facing the Laval Rocket, they split a pair of home games in the division semifinals. Then they went into Game 4 of the Cleveland series at home needing a win to stay alive, and they got it with an emphatic 5-2 decision.
A fourth-place finisher in the North Division, this Marlies team is still going as the calendar moves into June. And in a wildly unpredictable postseason in which all four regular-season division winners are now done for the summer, it’s the Marlies youth who are still playing. Rookie forward Easton Cowan’s goal with 11.3 seconds to go in regulation eliminated Cleveland. After spending the season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, his Calder Cup Playoff stint has produced nine points (five goals, four assists) in 14 games. Defenseman Ben Danford, coming straight out of the Ontario Hockey League to join the Marlies in time for the Cleveland series, has quickly fit in with head coach John Gruden’s group.
It’s a time of significant change around the Leafs, and those transitions will inevitably affect the Marlies.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment brought in John Chayka as the new general manager of the Leafs on May 3. Joining Chayka was Hockey Hall of Fame member and former Leafs captain Mats Sundin, who is the team’s new senior executive advisor of hockey operations. More changes came earlier today as MLSE added Judd Brackett as the assistant manager of player of player evaluation and former AHL forward Freddie Hamilton as chief of staff.
Chayka has already taken in the Marlies in person as his evaluation process starts to unfold.
And tonight brings the next challenge for those prospects. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finished third overall in the regular season and possesses a stout line-up from top to bottom. The Penguins’ speed and transition play always test opponents, and the Marlies can surely expect some further adjustments in Game 3. The visitors are trying to avoid a 3-0 series hole. They’ll be even more desperate.
Learning how to manage games and series is a part of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Those adjustments and the ability to start to wear down and frustrate an opponent are further growth opportunities. The Marlies have a chance to add a few more pages to their lesson plan this week in Toronto.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
