Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Who had the Toronto Marlies reach the Calder Cup final?
They did, for one thing.
Everyone else? This was a team that had lost six out of eight games. That kind of late-season slide will bring doubt outside. But they came together in the last days of the regular season. After a 6-3 loss in Utica on April 10, they traveled to Syracuse two days later, won 4-1, and qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs with back-to-back wins against the Laval Rockets to close out the regular season.
Then came the Calder Cup Playoffs, and the Marlies left a lot of destruction in their wake. The Rochester Americans fell short, though that best-of-three series came down to a decisive Game 3. It got off to a shaky start, though. They didn’t settle on a goaltender at first. The head coach John Gruden he went with Artur Akhtyamov for the Marlies’ first two playoff games against the Americans before turning to Dennis Hildeby to get through that 3rd game. Laval, the North Division regular season champion, followed, and Hildeby was left in net in Game 1. But then it was back to Akhtyamov. The Marlies sent Laval to another game that went the distance, and Akhtyamov heads to the Calder Cup Finals with an 11-6 record, a 2.12 goals-against average, and a .927 save percentage.
Facing the Cleveland Monsters in the North Division Finals, the Marlies trailed by a goal in the third period of Game 5 in Cleveland. They are alive though. Captain Logan Shawwhich is a Marlies game, they tied the game with 4:30 left in regulation. At 2-2 and facing a chance in overtime, the rookie forward Easton Cowan hit the Cleveland net with 11.3 seconds left.
Three rounds down, and the Marlies were off to face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. They continued. Consecutive game winners since Michael Pezzetta it allowed the Marlies to take the first two games of the series on the road. However, the push came, and the Penguins took two of three games at the Coca-Cola Coliseum.
But going back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with a 3-2 series lead last Sunday night, the Marlies made sure to stop any Penguins push. Alex Nylanderformer Penguin, he loosened up and ended any Game 7 thoughts for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton fans 13:44 into overtime for a 2-1 victory, the series, and a trip to the Calder Cup Finals.
The Marlies are in the finals for the third time, the first time since their championship season in 2017-18. Game 1 against the Chicago Wolves is tonight at Allstate Arena.
Cowan, a 2023 first-round pick who had 29 points with the parent Toronto Maple Leafs, has three goals in his last four games. Ben Danfordwho was still in the Ontario Hockey League when this playoff run began, stepped in to provide reliable work on the blue line. He is another first round pick for the Leafs. Luke Haymes he helped forward as we did Jacob Quillan and annoying teenagers Landon Sim. And as is the Toronto tradition, there is a strong veteran base. Matt Benning, Dakota Mermis again Marshall Rifai bring the security team information. Forward, Vinnie Lettieri he’s a proven producer with a Calder Cup Playoff-leading 17 goals (eight goals, nine assists) in 18 games, combined with the likes of Bo Groulx, Cédric Paré again Ryan Tverberg.
The emotional swings that come with pursuing the Calder Cup are many. One of those disappointments came in Game 4 against the Penguins when Cowan’s turnover set up the visitors’ late game-winning goal. Cowan vowed afterward that he would get better, and he went out and scored in both Game 5 and Game 6.
The Marlies have already won four rounds, played in 19 playoff games – more than a quarter of the regular season total – and have weathered countless bruises, injuries and rapid changes in fortunes. But even though the teams that played better than them in the regular season are done until the fall, the Marlies are still going.
There’s still a lot of road to cover, too.
“What a team we have,” Cowan said this week at practice. “But we are not done yet, we have work to do.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
