The Eastern Conference Finals begin tonight as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins host the Toronto Marlies in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series (7:05 ET, 
).
Both teams survived hard-fought five-game sweeps in the division finals to get here, the Penguins’ first conference final since 2014 and the Marlies’ first since 2019.
Down a goal with less than five minutes remaining in Game 5 in Cleveland on Sunday, Toronto scored twice – including Easton Cowan‘s winner with 11.3 seconds left – eliminating the Monsters. They headed to Wilkes-Barre after the game and returned to practice on Tuesday.
“Winning the way we did makes that six-hour bus ride seem less long,” the head coach said John Gruden said Tuesday. “The practice was good today, it was clean, our guys are smart mentally and (Game 1) should be good.”
Toronto won a career-high 13 games in the first three rounds, becoming the third team in AHL history to win three sweeps in one season.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defeated Springfield, 8-1, in their Game 5 decider on Saturday, a dramatic end to a series that was evenly matched and contested through the first four games.
“It’s a committee case,” the Penguins head coach said Kirk MacDonald said after Saturday’s win in which all 12 pitchers recorded at least one point. “We expect everyone to contribute. The way we want to attack offensively as a five-man team, there’s going to be a different person every night.”
Tristan Broz (3-6-9) had two goals and two assists in Game 5, Places to stay in Koivunen (3-4-7) added two goals and an assist, too Rafael Harvey-Pinard (2-1-3) scored twice in his return to the Penguins’ lineup after missing the previous five games.
“We played our way from start to finish,” MacDonald said. “If they want to put their minds to it, these are the results they get.”
“They’re a dangerous team,” Gruden said of the Penguins. “We’ll have to make sure we control the puck and don’t eat in transition.”
Vinnie Lettieri (6-7-13), who scored in Toronto’s opener Sunday before assisting on both third-period goals, leads the AHL in scoring.
Artur Akhtyamov (7-4, 2.18, .922) made nine consecutive starts in net for Marlies; Sergei Murashov (6-3, 1.74, .943) went the distance in the postseason for the Penguins, but has never faced Toronto in his career.
The teams split their two regular-season meetings in 2025-26: a 4-3 overtime win by the Marlies on Nov. 5, and a 4-3 regulation win by the Penguins on March 22.
