BACK FROM THE BRINK
Marlies rebound with strong effort at Ricoh to stave off elimination against Hershey,
It was William Nylander to the rescue.
The Maple Leafs’ top pick in the 2014 draft, Nylander scored a hat trick to end his own drought and help propel the Toronto Marlies to a 5-0 win Friday night over the Hershey Bears.
It was the first victory of the AHL’s Eastern Conference Calder Cup final for Toronto against three for Hershey.
Game 5 is set for Sunday afternoon, also at Ricoh Coliseum.
The Marlies are 2-0 when facing elimination this post-season.
Nylander had scored but three goals in 12 playoff games coming into Friday night’s must-win Game 4. The Bears had done a solid job of holding him and linemates Kasperi Kapanen and Zach Hyman off the board.
He scored with 32 seconds left in the first period — a seeing-eye wrist shot from the slot — and late in the second period, with just 1:25 remaining. That was a wrist shot from the sideboards as Toronto built its first two-goal lead of the series. Then he added a power-play goal from the point for Toronto’s fifth goal.
Toronto blew the game open in the third.
After going 0-for-10 on the power play through the first three games, the Marlies connected twice in backto-back man advantages in the third. Josh Leivo on a rebound and Connor Carrick off the rush got the tallies.
The Marlies will be looking to see Bears defenceman Madison Bowey suspended following an ugly elbow to the head of Kapanen after the game got out of hand. Bowey also appears to have uttered a slur. Kapanen was shaken up on the play, but left the ice under his own steam.
Stuck, really, between a rock and hard place, Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe decided to start Antoine Bibeau — 5-4, with a 2.98 goals-against average — against Hershey’s Justin Peters, 10-4, 1.74, .937.
Neither Bibeau nor Garret Sparks (2-2, 2.30, .915) had elicited much confidence lately. But Keefe was counting on a bounce-back game after both his goalies combined to allow eight goals in Game 3.
Marlies will be looking to see Bears’ Madison Bowey suspended following an ugly elbow to the head of Kapanen after game got out of hand
Bibeau gave him what he needed with an 18-save shutout, while the shooters finally came alive; Toronto fired 33 shots at Peters.
Despite the victory, the Marlies still face an uphill battle. Only three teams in AHL history have won a seven-game series when losing the first three.
But with the shooters having gained some confidence, the Marlies at least might be in the head of Hershey’s defenders and goalie.
The Marlies made other roster moves, with the size of Frederik Gauthier inserted with Sam Carrick scratched.
Also, there was a curious decision to dress a seventh defenceman, Victor Loov, costing winger Brendan Leipsic a spot. NOTES: When Chris Bourque scored a goal and assisted on one of Jakub Vrana’s in Game 3, he became the Bears all-time playoff point leader at 74 points, passing ex-Leaf coach Mike Nykolukfor first place . . . Bourque’s 76 career playoff assists are tied for second-most in AHL history, and his 105 points place him fifth . . . The Lake Erie Monsters swept the Ontario Reign in the Western Conference final to reach the Calder Cup final for the first time in franchise history . . . The Bears were 6-for-6 on the penalty kill in Game 3, and scored two short-handed goals on the same minor early in the third period.