The Toronto Marlies’ road to the Eastern Conference Finals hasn’t been easy, but they find themselves eight wins out of the championship just the same.
Easton Cowan scored with 11.3 seconds left in Game 5 to send the Marlies past the Cleveland Monsters, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon. Toronto joined the 2002 Chicago Wolves and 2023 Coachella Valley Firebirds as the only teams in AHL history to win a three-game sweep in the same postseason.
In both the semifinals against Laval and the division finals against Cleveland, the Marlies trailed 2-1 in the third period of Game 5 before winning the game and series.
“The strength of our team, our ability to bend and not break,” the head coach John Gruden said after Sunday’s win. “It’s a credit to our guys – the way they behave when our backs are against the wall.”
Before Cowan scored the series-winning goal, the captain Logan Shaw tied 2-2 with 4:30 left to play. For Shaw, a 13-year champion, this will be his second time reaching the conference finals; he was with the Anaheim Ducks when they made the NHL’s Western Conference Final in 2017.
“He deserves to get that game-tying goal,” Gruden said. “This [our] It’s our third year together and you’ve gotten to be a better player all around and a better leader all around. His leadership is unmatched.”
“We’re just playing with each other,” said Shaw. “We have a lot of positives, and a lot of guys in that room are willing to do everything to win.”
The Marlies will face Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the Eastern Conference championship. Game 1 is Wednesday (7 ET, 
) in Wilkes-Barre.
