Miro Aaltonen and Garret Sparks were the heroes as the Toronto Marlies kept their perfect playoff home record intact to take a 2-0 series lead heading to Allentown.
A seventh straight victory at the Ricoh puts the Marlies within two wins of making it to the Calder Cup Final for just the second time in franchise history.
First Period
In what was a great goaltending battle throughout, Alex Lyon posted 19 saves in a frantic first period.
The Marlies fired the first nine shots of the game, but the Marlies got caught with three forwards deep on a transition back the other way, allowing Lehigh to strike first on just their second shot almost eight minutes in.
Mark Friedman, the trailer on the play, beat Sparks with a low short short-side that the goaltender might want back, in retrospect.
The Marlies responded a little over 90 seconds later on the power play, when Trevor Moore tipped a shot from Calle Rosen, with Lyon a little unfortunate to have the puck bounce off and over his pad on its way into the net.
Chances for both teams included Phil Varone forcing two excellent saves out of Sparks, while Mason Marchment somehow failed to capitalize on a rebound opportunity from another blistering Rosen effort.
Despite the Marlies outshooting the Phantoms 20-9 in the opening frame, the game sat tied at 1-1 through 20 minutes.
Second Period
The scoreline wasn’t altered in the middle frame, and not for a lack of scoring opportunities at both ends.
The Marlies were once again dictating play to begin the period, but Andreas Johnsson and Colin Greening were unable to find a way past Lyon and the Marlies were also unable to take advantage of their fourth power play of the game.
The momentum then shifted a little as Lehigh were allowed into the game on a couple of Marlie giveaways. Mike Vecchione was only denied by Sparks from between the hash marks following a turnover before the Phantoms earned back-to-back power plays of their own.
The first was easily killed by the Marlies, who almost tallied short-handed through Frederik Gauthier and Johnsson, but the second Phantoms man advantage was a different matter. Sparks was forced into yet another ten bell stop to turn aside Greg Carey’s redirect with a glove save, keeping the scoreline level after 40 minutes.
Third Period
A fifth man advantage for Toronto was fruitless and the Marlies found themselves trailing just five minutes into the third period.
Cole Bardreau was denied by Sparks and Carey rang a shot off the crossbar before consecutive turnovers from Justin Holl from behind the goal line led to Lehigh taking the lead. Mikhail Vorobyev scored his first of the playoffs from low in the slot, and the Marlies now required a spark to get themselves back into the game.
Enter Carl Grundstrom. A mere 23 seconds later, a shot from Lehigh rang around the Toronto net and out to Grundstrom, who proceeded to storm away down the right side of the rink. Ignoring Johnsson to his left, the 20-year-old winger sniped over the shoulder of Lyon to bring the Ricoh Coliseum crowd to their feet.
Marchment then struck the crossbar with a laser beam of a shot and a redirect from Grundstrom slid just wide of the post as the Marlies created just two chances of note to finish the period.
Meanwhile, Lehigh forced Sparks into 11 saves over the final 20 in order to force a fourth period to decide Game 2.
Just over a minute into the extra frame, it appeared as if Lehigh had evened the series, but a trigger-happy goal judge had mistaken a stick hitting the roof of the net for the puck as Vecchione’s shot actually flew high over the cage.
Overtime was played at a frantic pace and it appeared as if Lehigh clinched the win at the midway mark of the period. Travis Dermott made an incredible diving play to break up a 2-on-1 featuring Vorobyev and Martel before the Phantoms worked the puck back to T.J Brennan just above the hash marks. The former Toronto defenseman fired a bomb of a shot, but Sparks pulled off a remarkable flying glove save to keep the game alive.
The chants of “Sparksy, Sparksy” rang out around Ricoh Coliseum as Calvin Pickard banged the boards in appreciation from the bench and Travis Dermott hugged his goaltender.
That proved to be the overtime turning point — a minute later, the Marlies repaid their goaltender with a wonderfully-worked game-winning goal.
A poke check from Johnsson at his own blue line recovered possession and allowed Rosen to send a stretch pass to Grundstrom on the left wing. The Swedish winger was held up by a defender but dished the back off to Rosen, who was following up on the play and was now in the left circle with options.
The defenseman delivered an inch-perfect cross-ice saucer pass to Johnsson, who teed the puck back up for Miro Aaltonen to score the easiest tap-in of his career.
Post Game Notes
– Garret Sparks was undoubtedly the first star of the game in posting 35 saves for his eighth post-season victory.
“That’s a big-time save at this time of year, with what is at stake,” Sheldon Keefe said of Sparks’ OT save preceding the game winner.
– Carl Grundstrom netted his fifth goal of the playoffs and now moves into a tie with Dmytro Timashov for the team lead. Miro Aaltonen chose the perfect time to score his first game-winner of the playoffs. That’s four goals in five games and a total of eight points (4-4-8) in 11 games overall for the Finnish forward, who is hitting his stride offensively at the right time of year.
“We knew we had real solid chemistry with Aaltonen and Johnsson,” said Keefe. “That really developed nicely for us. Kapanen was the guy on the other side, and obviously, he’s not with us. I found that, with Kapanen’s departure, that was a spot that never really filled itself with the personnel that we had and we tried different things. Once we knew Johnny would be back here, and when Carl arrived, we thought that he would be a nice fit. He likes to play the right side even though he’s a left shot, and just the skill set and finishing ability that he has.”
We saw why Grundstrom likes playing the right as a left-handed shot on the crucial bounce-back tying goal in the third period.
– Trevor Moore’s goal was his fourth and his 11th playoff point. Andreas Johnsson also registered his eleventh point with the assist on the game-winner. The two are tied for third overall in AHL playoff scoring.
– At his best, Calle Rosen is a real threat offensively to complement his defensive game.
He led all skaters with seven shots, recorded two assists, and was instrumental in the game-winner, jumping up and staying involved in the attack before stringing a perfect pass to Grundstrom at the back post.
– Chris Mueller moved into third in team post-season scoring by registering a seventh assist to go along with his two goals.
The series now switches to Allentown for the next three games as the best regular season home record (27-6-5) goes up against the best road record (30-5-3).
