The Toronto Marlies rallied with three third period goals to defeat the Albany Devils 4-3 in Game 7 of the Calder Cup second round series in front of nearly 8,000 fans at Ricoh Coliseum on Monday.
Veteran Rich Clune broke a 3-3 tie with 2:30 remaining in regulation to give Toronto the win, who move on to face the Hershey Bears in the Eastern Conference Final beginning on Friday in Hershey, PA.
Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, Connor Carrick and Clune scored for the Marlies and Antoine Bibeau made 25 saves for the victory.
Toronto welcomed team captain Andrew Campbell and winger Nikita Soshnikov back to the lineup for Game 7. Campbell had been out since Game 3 of the first round series against Bridgeport, while the pesky Russian was scratched in favor of Matt Frattin in Game 6.
The Marlies got the crowd into the game early in the first after Viktor Loov was penalized for roughing, as Brown took advantage of a Albany neutral zone turnover and scored on a short-handed breakaway past goalie Scott Wedgewood.
The Marlies had the better of the offensive chances and outshot the Devils 13-8 in the opening period, but could not extend their lead.
Albany rebounded in the middle frame, maintaining control in the offensive zone on the opening shift and tying the game on Paul Thompson's second goal of the playoffs.
After killing off another penalty early in the third, the Devils won an offensive zone faceoff cleanly and cashed in on a Bibeau rebound, as Nick Lappin gave Albany their first lead of the game.
Kapanen tied the game on an impressive individual effort, sniping the puck short side on the Albany goaltender to tie the game and then setting up Carrick on the go ahead goal just under four minutes later.
The Devils bounced back quickly and tied it on Thompson's second goal of the game, but Clune jumped on the rebound of a Nikita Soshnikov point shot to beat Wedgewood and give Toronto the victory.
William Nylander did not respond to Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe's challenge to step it up in Game 7, with no shots on goal and only a secondary assist on Carrick's tally, but Kapanen furthered the reputation of being a big game player that began with his winning goal at the 2016 IIHF World Junior with the tying goal when Toronto appeared to be on the brink of despair.
"(Kapanen) had a terrific series for us. He's really played hard." Keefe said following the game. "You score that goal in the World Junior and people start to know you and you start to get a reputation for coming through in big moments. That's one, but now you do it a second time, it starts to really become a thing."
The Marlies, in spite of having the best record in the AHL and having home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, will open on the road for the second time this post-season.
Hershey(who defeated Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in overtime of Game 7) has a circus booked from May 25th to May 30th, which would have coincided with the Bears hosting Game 3,4 & 5 as the lower seeded team.
Instead the series will open this Friday in Hershey, with Game 2 on Saturday before returning to Ricoh Coliseum for Game 3 - 5 on Wed. May 25, Fri. May 27 and Sun. May 29th.
Game 6 if necessary be in Pennsylvania on Tues. May 31 and Game 7 would take place in Toronto on Thur, June 2nd.
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