The Toronto Marlies advanced to the Calder Cup Finals for the first time since 1992 with a 3-1 victory over the Oklahoma City Barons in front of over 7500 fans at Ricoh Coliseum on Friday night.
Defenseman Simon Gysbers broke a 1-1 tie midway through the third period and Toronto held on to eliminate the team the top seed in the AHL’s Western Conference in five games.
Toronto will face the Eastern Conference winning Norfolk Admirals in the best-of-seven league championship series, beginning June 1st in Norfolk.
The Marlies went with the same lineup that won Game Four Wednesday night, with none of their injured players able to return to the lineup for the last home game of the series.
Coach Dallas Eakins utilized the makeshift fourth line of Colton Orr, Jay Rosehill and Josh Engel to begin the game with some energy. The unit drew Oklahoma’s Dan Ringwald into a penalty before the first shift was over.
Moments later, the power play clicked as Jake Gardiner, Philippe Dupuis and Matt Frattin worked the puck in tic-tac-toe fashion from the point and below the goal line to Frattin, who roofed it past Yann Danis as soon as it touched his stick to give the Marlies a lead 73 seconds into the game.
In the second, Toronto continued to play the conservative style that has been effective in their previous two home wins; shutting down Oklahoma’s breakouts of their defensive zone and relying on counterattacking to generate their opportunities. Toronto nearly made it 2-0 after Nicolas Deschamps broke in and backhanded a shot that Danis stopped but yielded a juicy rebound that Frattin was unable to convert.
After a failing to score on a number of chances, the Barons finally tied the game with 15 seconds left, as Chris VandeVelde shoveled in a loose puck for his sixth goal of the playoffs.
The goal ended a streak of 107 minutes, 49 seconds in which Toronto and goaltender Ben Scrivens had not allowed a goal.
Oklahoma City played with an increased level of desperation in the third, but could not be Scrivens, who made 10 of his 26 saves in crunch time. Midway through the period, Nicolas Deschamps gained the offensive zone, curled at the faceoff circle and teed up the puck for an oncoming Simon Gysbers, who unleashed a blast from just inside the blueline that beat Danis just inside the post for his first goal of the postseason.
Frattin scored an insurance goal into the empty net in the waning seconds, giving him a league leading 10 goals in 13 playoff games.
The Finals begin in Norfolk, with Game 1 on Fri. June 1st and Game 2 on Sat. June 2nd. The series moves to Toronto for Games 3, 4 and 5, on Thu. Jun 7th , Sat. Jun 9th and Sun. Jun 10th. If necessary, Games 6 and 7 will be played back in Norfolk on Fri. Jun 13th and Sun. Jun 15.
If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Maple Leafs Buzz, which includes a free-of-charge 14-day trial and is just 99 cents per month afterwards. For more information click here.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»