Marlies find magic touch
Three-goal third puts AHL crown three wins away
Marlies captain Ben Smith and his alternates surrounded the Richard F. Canning Trophy at centre ice at Ricoh Coliseum prior to Game 1 of the Calder Cup final.
They looked at it. They were photographed with it. And in true hockey fashion, they didn’t touch it.
“It was nice to be presented with it before the game, but we were focused on this game,” Smith said of Saturday’s trophy presentation to the AHL’s Eastern Conference champions. “We didn’t talk about touching it.”
For a while — if superstition is a thing — it looked like the wrong decision as the Marlies made mistakes, ran into penalty problems and looked to be in disarray. But they rallied from a two-goal deficit — Smith was a huge part of it — to beat the Texas Stars 6-5 in a “don’t blink or you’ll miss something” opener.
“There were a lot of chunks of this game that weren’t very good for us,” said Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe. “The fact (is) we survived that and found a way to win. It was ugly for sure.”
Ugly, maybe, but exciting for sure as 8,000 towel-waving fans went home happy. No lead was safe, and two teams that hadn’t played each other all season got to know each other quickly. The Stars are a veteran-laden club compared to the Marlies, who carry more young prospects.
Both teams were coming off long layoffs: a week for the Marlies, five days for the Stars.
“It felt like we weren’t sharp,” said Keefe.
“All I can accredit that to is the layoff, but give credit to the other team.”
The Marlies have now won 10 games in a row, starting with the overtime clincher in the best-of-five opening series against Utica. The Stars have quickly proven to be their toughest opponent.
“The way the last chunk of games have gone for us, they haven’t been as competitive, as tight,” added Keefe. “The scores have been tight, but the play hasn’t been. We haven’t had a team push back on us that hard. That’s a credit to them, but we found a way to win and I would expect we’ll be better (in Game 2 Sunday).
The Marlies are trying to become first Maple Leafs farm team to win the Calder Cup since the 1981-82 New Brunswick Hawks, an affiliate they shared with the Chicago Blackhawks. The last time an AHL team fully stocked by the Leafs won it all: the 1967-68 Rochester Americans.
The 1991-92 St. John’s Maple Leafs went to seven games in the final, losing to Adirondack. After moving to Toronto, the Marlies lost the Cup final to Norfolk in 2012 and were eliminated in the conference final in 2014.
Now, only Texas stands in their way.
“They’re a good team,” said Smith. “I don’t know if we were at our best at the beginning, but being down 4-2 with two minutes to go in the second, they really pushed us to the edge and we were able to push back.”
Smith’s shot from the corner — deflected by a passing Chris Mueller — beat Texas goalie Mike McKenna with15 seconds to go in the second, cutting the deficit to a goal. A Marlies team that hadn’t played well overall carried that momentum through the intermission and stormed through the third period, with goals from Mason Marchment, Martin Marincin and Trevor Moore.
“That was huge,” Moore said of the Mueller goal. “Ben (Smith) did all the work and made a really good play.”
Marincin’s goal, which gave Toronto a 5-4 lead, was a thing of beauty with some dipsy-doo- dle moves. Moore’s winner was all the more remarkable. He broke his stick on the power play, went to the bench for a replacement and skated back to the slot, taking a pass at full speed.
Justin Holl and Frederik Gauthier scored in the first, and the Marlies won despite no offence from their top line of Andreas Johnsson, Miro Aaltonen and Carl Grundstrom.
“It says a lot about this organization and the depth they’ve created,” said Moore. “We have four good lines. It’s nice that when they aren’t producing we have other guys who can step up.”
Marlies goalie Garret Sparks allowed five goals for the first time in the playoffs, stopping 32 of 37 shots.
“Coming into this game, all I cared about was getting a win,” said Sparks. “I’m happy with the result. All that matters at this time of year, here in June, is winning hockey games.”
Game 2 goes Sunday at 4 p.m. at Ricoh Coliseum.