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Marlies win over Lehigh Valley in Conference Final opener |
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The Toronto Marlies continued their home ice dominance in the opener of the Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final, as Adam Brooks goal early in the third period gave the club a 4-3 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at Ricoh Coliseum on Saturday.
Miro Aaltonen scored twice and Ben Smith also scored and Garret Sparks made 26 saves for Toronto, who registered their sixth straight playoff victory at home.
The Marlies continued their recent trend of getting off to quick starts, as the combo of Aaltonen and Andreas Johnsson continued their scoring prowess that they displayed in the second round series against Syracuse, tallying twice in the opening 12 minutes of the first.
The 24-year-old Finn, who scored 20 goals in his first AHL season, opened the scoring by deflecting a Johnsson shot past Phantoms goalie Alex Lyon on the power play.
The pair struck again at even strength later in the first to increase the lead to two goals, but Lehigh Valley responded before the end of the period with a power play goal from Phillipe Myers responded on the man advantage.
The Phantoms tied the game 35 seconds into the middle frame on a goal from
Tyrell Goulbourne and Toronto ran into penalty trouble midway through the second, as Johnsson was questionably penalized for boarding Phantoms winger Oskar Lindblom and defenseman Travis Dermott was handed a double minor for an inadvertent high stick on the Lehigh Valley forward.
The Toronto penalty killers were able to kill off a 43-second two-man disadvantage, but could not kill off the rest of Dermott’s double minor, as Chris Conner gave the Phantoms a 3-2 lead.
The turning point of the game came late in second, when a sharp passing play from Justin Holl and Dmytro Timashov set up Smith for his second goal of the playoffs and the tying goal.
“That (goal) was big. Our line had a turnover and they scored on us earlier in the period.” Smith said. “It would have been a different game going into the third down a goal. (It was a) big goal and nice play from my linemates and I was just there to deflect it in.”
Toronto took the lead for good early in the third, as fourth liners Mason Marchment and Trevor Moore did some nice work along the boards and centered the puck to Brooks, who snapped a shot quickly just over Lyon’s shoulder and under the crossbar for the game-winner.
The two clubs will resume hostilities on Sunday afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum. After the game, Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe indicated starting Sparks in the second of back-to-back games was not a certainty and will be based on how he feels after his 26-save outing. Keefe used Calvin Pickard in a back-to-back game scenario in the second round series against Syracuse and did not rule out that possibility for Game 2.
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