The Toronto Marlies season has come to what many believe is a premature end, as the club with the AHL's best regular season record was eliminated by the Hershey Bears in Game 5 of the Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final.
After Hershey's Liam O'Brien opened the scoring midway through the first, Christian Djoos and Nathan Walker scored 64 seconds apart early the second period to give the Bears what turned out to be an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
Antoine Bibeau looks behind as Hershey's Nathan Walker's shot beats the Marlies goaltender in a 3-2 loss to the Bears on Sunday at Ricoh Coliseum.
Image courtesy of Christian Bonin at TSGPhoto
William Nylander scored in the middle frame and Nikita Soshnikov tallied early in the third to narrow the lead to 3-2, but Toronto could not get the tying goal by veteran goalie Justin Peters, who preserved the winning margin, victory and series win for Hershey, who will now face the Lake Erie Monsters in the Calder Cup Final beginning on Wednesday.
In spite of being fourth in the American Hockey League in goals allowed during the regular season, inexperience, lapses in effort and inconsistent goaltending did in the Marlies, who were taken to seven games by the defensively superior Albany Devils and beaten by a hard-working Bears squad, who were effective in smothering the high-powered Toronto offense for all but one game.
"We had lulls within the series, certainly Game 1 of this series was a lull for us coming off the high of Game 7 (of the Albany series). Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe said following the loss. "Playoffs play with your mind a lot, the emotions really do a number on you and that's where experience comes in, to be able to manage that."
Toronto will have locker clean out and Marlies GM(Leafs Asst GM) Kyle Dubas and Keefe will speak with the media on Monday. It is likely that the club's roster will be dramatically different next season, with a large group of players moving up to the NHL, young prospects graduating from Junior and veterans not being brought back others being either moved in off-season deals.
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Maple Leafs 2015 first rounder Mitch Marner put the finishing touch on one of the most impressive junior seasons in recent memory, winning the MasterCard Memorial Cup on Sunday.
Marner assisted on Matthew Tkachuk's opening goal in the second period and nearly scored the game winner for the Knights late in regulation, firing the puck off the crossbar.
The 19-year-old led the tournament with 14 points (2 goals, 12 assists) in four games and was named the Memorial Cup MVP after being named the CHL Player of the Year on Saturday. Marner is the first player since 2000 (Brad Richards) to win the the OHL's Most Outstanding Player, OHL Playoff MVP, CHL Player of the Year and the Memorial Cup MVP in the same season.
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