The Toronto Marlies punched their ticket to the Eastern Conference Final by completing an impressive four-game sweep of the Syracuse Crunch on Tuesday night.
The Marlies jumped out to an early lead and defended it well the rest of the way en route to just the second seven-game series sweep in franchise history.
First Period (Shots 10-9 Marlies)
The opening period featured a number of excellent scoring chances for both clubs, but the Marlies were the far more clinical team in front of goal.
Pierre Engvall and Dmytro Timashov tested Connor Ingram inside the first two minutes before Toronto headed to the penalty kill, where Garret Sparks produced a pair of wonderful saves to deny Troy Bourke and Erik Condra.
The Marlies responded by striking on a power play of their own — a tic-tac-toe play with a redirect touch pass across the crease ended in Dmytro Timashov finding the net with assists from Ben Smith and Chris Mueller.
Syracuse almost responded immediately, but Sparks came up with another timely save on Mathieu Joseph.
Smith somehow failed to double Toronto’s lead at the seven-minute mark despite two prime scoring chances (how the second of those failed to cross the goal line defied all logic).
Back on the penalty kill for the second time, the Marlies appeared to be on the wrong end of a bounce after the puck fell kindly for Alexander Volkov, but Sparks produced a splits save to rob the rookie of a sure goal before the period — and the game — turned on a dirty hit.
Alex Gallant, making his postseason debut for Syracuse, saw it last just 11 minutes as the noted AHL goon took a run at Mason Marchment, planting an elbow to the head of Toronto’s rookie and earning himself a five-minute major and a game misconduct in the process.
Thankfully, Marchment seemed none the worse for wear, and the Marlies exacted revenge with the extra man as Andreas Johnsson roofed a wrist shot past Ingram to double the lead.
Sparks was called into action to stop Volkov during a shorthanded breakaway, but that’s as close as the Crunch came to taking a dent out of the Marlies’ 2-0 advantage through 20 minutes.
Second Period (Shots 9-4 Marlies)
The middle frame was largely carried by the Marlies, although they couldn’t extend their lead. Miro Aaltonen failed to capitalize on two excellent looks while Engvall and Moore also failed to bury on a couple of scoring opportunities.
A redirect from Mitchell Stephens striking the crossbar was as near as the Crunch came to halving the deficit, and Syracuse was fortunate to only trail by two heading into the final 20.
In possession of a two-goal lead with the long change, the Marlies put in a pretty business-like middle 20 and limited the Crunch to just four shots on goal.
Third Period (Shots 9-4 Crunch)
The Marlies power play prowess from the first period didn’t resurface in the third on a wasted man advantage three minutes in.
From that point on, Syracuse started to manufacture some momentum as they endeavoured to climb their way back into the game and live to see another day in the series.
Martin Marincin made two outstanding plays to deny a 3-on-1 break, followed by Sparks shutting the door on Stephens after he broke free of the Toronto defense.
With 9:31 remaining, Sparks’ shutout bid was spoiled as the Crunch pulled within one — off a defensive zone draw won by Frederik Gauthier, Marincin played the puck into trouble up the wall and Syracuse won possession back before a point shot from Red McNeill hit the post flush, bounced off Sparks, and trickled over the goal line.
Ingram kept Syracuse within one with a ten-bell save on Moore, while Carl Grundstrom should have hit the target from the slot following a set-up from Johnsson.
Those missed opportunities kept Syracuse within one as they pulled their rookie goaltender with two minutes to play, but the Marlies did a bang-up job of limiting the Crunch to the perimeter before icing the puck inside the final 30 seconds.
Despite losing two consecutive offensive zone faceoffs, the Marlies did enough to hold on to their 2-1 advantage, clinching the sweep and punching their ticket to the Eastern Conference Final.
Post Game Notes
– Garret Sparks posted 21 saves for his sixth victory of the post-season. Through three games against Syracuse, Sparks gave up six goals in three and a half hours of play (.936 save percentage).
“I thought he was great,” said Sheldon Keefe. “I thought we defended extremely well in front of him and he didn’t have to contend with much, but when we did, he was solid, as we’ve come to expect.”
– Timothy Liljegren’s primary assist was his second point of the post-season. Both of the Marlies’ power play goals started with examples of Liljegren confidently pulling the strings as the PP QB at the top of the zone; for his assist, he did a great job of sucking in the high penalty killer before finding Johnsson, who stepped into the space Liljegren opened up and wristed home the eventual game-winner.
– Dmytro Timashov scored his fourth power play goal of the playoffs and now has seven points in nine postseason games. Ben Smith, Chris Mueller and Pierre Engvall also recorded their seventh points of the playoffs.
The #Marlies have three players in the top ten in playoff scoring and seven players in the league's top 20. Moore with a share of the league lead at 9 pts, Johnsson w 8pts, Timashov, Engvall, Mueller, Gauthier, Smith all with 7pts,
— Todd Crocker (@HockeyCrock) May 9, 2018
– Andreas Johnsson moved to second in team scoring with eight points (3-5-8) after scoring the game-winner on the first-period major power play.
– The Marlies will face Lehigh Valley Phantoms or Charlotte Checkers in the Eastern Conference Final. The Phantoms currently hold a 2-1 lead. Should the series go seven games, the Marlies’ opponent won’t be known until May 15.
