Marlies Star-struck
Texas uses big second period to even series and force a deciding game for Calder Cup
The good news is the Toronto Marlies still have a chance to win the first Calder Cup in franchise history. That happens Thursday.
The bad news is they squandered an opportunity to do it on Tuesday.
The Texas Stars withstood an early Marlies barrage and used their own bit of luck and grit to win Game 6 of the Calder Cup final 5-2 at the Ricoh Coliseum.
The series, tied at three games apiece, finishes Thursday with the winnertake-all Game 7, also at the Ricoh (7 p.m.). And doubt might be seeping in with Marlies started Garret Sparks posting his weakest outing — four goals on 17 shots — before being yanked.
Calle Rosen and Justin Holl scored third-period goals.
Sparks has been the backbone of the team all season, though it’s probably not the worst thing in the world that backup Calvin Pickard got some playing time given the stakes on Thursday.
The Marlies are trying to bring Toronto its first men’s professional hockey championship since the Maple Leafs captured the Stanley Cup in 1967.
The Stars, who finished 22 points behind the Marlies in the overall standings in the regular season, have proven resilient opponents, answering each Marlies win, a fact that had not gone unnoticed in the Toronto room.
“Well, we’ve seen them come back now after we’ve won. They’ve won ... in this building and so obviously they aren’t going away. At the end of the day we’ve got to win one game and it’s not going to be easy,” said forward Colin Greening.
Texas is hoping to become the first team in Calder Cup history to win the championship by winning the last two games on the road.
The Marlies spent the day trying not to think the Cup was on the line, trying to treat it like any other.
“Just treating it like any other day, as difficult as that may be,” Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe said prior to the game. “We’re here for a reason and that’s because of how we’ve played and how we’ve prepared and we have to make sure we’re doing the same things.”
By “doing the same things,“the Marlies were also hoping to duplicate their efforts in Game 5, when they scored on two of their first three shots and ultimately chased Stars goalie Mike McKenna from the game after 20 minutes.
But McKenna, 35 and in his second Calder Cup final in two years, seemed intent on proving himself a money goalie, withstanding an onslaught of Marlies shooters, stopping 16 shots in the first period to keep the game scoreless.
While the ice had been tilted in favour of the Marlies for the first period and most of the second, it was Texas that scored first.
And it was a controversial play that opened the scoring and had the Ricoh crowd booing the refs. Martin Marincin was dumped in the corner — with- out a call — by Curtis McKenzie, the Stars most dangerous shooter. He got control of the puck and had no one between him and the Toronto net, deking Sparks, for his playoffs-leading 11th goal and a1-0 Texas lead.
Sparks didn’t look good on the next two — goals by Travis Morin and Austin Fyten. In fact, no Marlie looked good on Fyten, who beat Greening up the ice while Timothy Liljegren seemed to miss an assignment.
The second period ended 3-0, with the sold-out Ricoh crowd restless and with a few boos.
There was a momentary boost of life when Rosen scored from the blue line at 1:37 of the first period followed quickly by a Marlies power play. But the Stars’ Sheldon Dries scored short-handed to restore a three-goal cushion and end Sparks’ night.
Holl scored with under five minutes to go. Keefe pulled Pickard for the extra attacker, and Marlies defenceman Vincent LoVerde fell and fanned on a clearing attempt.
Texas’s Colin Markison scored with 3:32 to go for a 5-2 lead that started the inevitable march to the exits by the Marlies crowd.
It had been a record crowd, thanks to newly installed seating at the north end, of 8,783.