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It’s all on the line tonight at the Ricoh Coliseum.

Whether a historic season for the franchise ends in another deep-but-just-short playoff run or the team’s first-ever Calder Cup championship — and the city’s first professional men’s hockey trophy since 1967 — comes down to this. It doesn’t get much better than Game 7 for the Cup.


Keys to the Game

– The Marlies have dictated the play for most of the series so far — especially in Game 6 — and need to make sure that their high-possession style of play isn’t of the variety that is warming the goalie up more than testing him to the fullest. Lower-volume, better quality shots — more rush chances, more home plate shots with traffic, more cross-ice passes — are key. Shots with no chance to beat the goalie and have no chance for a rebound aren’t helping; by loading up McKenna with low-quality shots, it inflates a goalie’s confidence and will make him look as unbeatable as he looked in Game 6. The Marlies had the puck a tonne — which is great — but they need to force their way into the hard, critical areas of the ice.

– Also of note is that Texas has been able to catch the Marlies out by stretching the game and getting their forwards behind the Marlies defense — a problem that has been directly responsible for a number of key goals against for the Marlies. The pinching, active D that the Marlies coaching staff encourages — and what makes them effective — is also an area that needs better judgment as far as when and how they are pinching. The defence and forwards need to be aware that Texas will, at times, have one man behind the whole team in the neutral zone waiting for a flip or stretch pass or for a puck to squeak free.

– The Marlies goaltending also needs to be better than it was in Game 6 — full stop. In goaltending vernacular, going by goals that are in the “coulda” stopped it, “shoulda” shopped it and “no chance,” a good number of goals against with Sparks in net this series are in the “shoulda” and “coulda” categories, and McKenna has out-played him for the most part in this series. Sparks has a mixed bag of results in the playoffs over his career, and we’ll see how the coaching staff is going treat him in a Game 7 scenario. If he’s not dialed in mentally, like in Game 6, we might see a short leash from the coaching staff. To Sparks’ credit, with some doubts surfacing and Calvin Pickard at the ready, he responded with a big-time performance in Game 5 against Utica in Round 1.


Game Day Quotes

Sheldon Keefe on the championship coming down to one game:

It’s been a long season. We’ve been together for a long time. We’ve accomplished a lot of things together as a group. You get a chance here to play on the final day. No games left. No hockey left. It’s an honour and a privilege to be here, and one that we’ve earned. We’re incredibly excited.

Keefe on the adjustments to make from Game 6:

It’s not so much Game 6. Really, it’s the whole series. You’ve gone through the process of getting an opponent you’ve never seen, to now having gone through six battles with them. You know exactly what you’re in for here in a Game 7. You’ve got to take all of those things you’ve learned here through this series and apply them here to be at our absolute best.

Keefe on how special this Marlies group is:

I think it goes back to the people that were brought in. It really starts with Kyle Dubas’ leadership and the type of environment that he creates around here. He is obviously the guy responsible for bringing in those veteran people… the guys that are new to the organization, especially. Sort of recognizing the needs we had and bringing in a great group like that, and then you create an atmosphere and an environment around here that breeds positivity and development and togetherness – all of those types of things that we’ve developed all season. There is more to it than just putting together a bunch of good players. We’ve had a lot of good teams here in my two years previous to this. We’ve never gotten to this point. The biggest difference is just the togetherness that we have and how everything has come together.

Ben Smith on the team’s preparation for Game 7:

We had a Game 5 similar to this in the first round – win or go home – and we were able to pull that off. We have confidence we can come out strong and maintain that through the 60 minutes.

Smith on Timothy Liljegren’s growth over the season and throughout the playoffs:

He’s been growing a lot as the season has gone on – gaining confidence, really figuring out this North American game. We need him to step up and play some big minutes for us tonight. We need everyone, really. But it’s been good to see Timmy come along here in the playoffs and be a contributor for us.


Toronto Marlies Projected Lines

Forwards
Johnsson-Aaltonen-Grundstrom
Timashov-Mueller-Smith
Engvall-Gauthier-Greening
Marchment-Brooks-Moore

Defensemen
Marincin-Holl
Rosen-LoVerde
Nielsen-Liljegren

Starting Goalie
Sparks

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