The Toronto Marlies were unable to shut out the noise, handle the pressure and contain the talented Syracuse Crunch in Syracuse in four losses during their best-of-seven series last season, but Toronto overcame those obstacles with a dominant opening period in a 7-1 victory at Onondaga War Memorial Arena on Sunday,
Chris Mueller, Carl Grundstrom, Miro Aaltonen, Colin Greening, Andreas Johnsson and Trevor Moore scored twice for the Marlies, who take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Calder Cup North Division Final and have a chance to move to the Eastern Conference Final with a win on Tuesday.
Toronto killed off a Pierre Engvall minor in the opening minute, took a 2-0 lead on goals from Mueller and Grundstrom before the game was five minutes old and limited the Crunch to three first period shots on Calvin Pickard, who started in place of Garret Sparks and made 18 saves in his first professional playoff victory.
“(It was) vital. We were coming off of (Saturday’s) win, we’re up two coming in here against a team when they get momentum is hard to get it back from them and their crowd behind them makes it even more difficult.” Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We had a demon to conquer in terms of our ability to win on the road, that goes back to last season against this team, but even in the first round against Utica. We had a chance to finish that series but failed to do so.”
The Marlies top line of Aaltonen, Grundstrom and Johnsson could not be contained in Game 3 after being shutout in the 2-1 double overtime victory on Saturday. Each scored a goal, compiled eight points, registered 10 shots and were named the three stars of the game.
After allowing 47 shots on Sparks on Saturday, Toronto was stifling defensively and won most of the puck battles against a weary Syracuse club and limited them to only 19 shots, but in spite of not facing a lot of rubber, Pickard was able to make key saves on the early power play and on a Mathieu Joseph breakaway that kept the Crunch from getting their crowd into the game.
“When I was in junior hockey, I kinda chased it if I didn’t have a whole lot of shots,” Pickard said after the game. “In the pros, there are going to be a lot of games, especially on a good team, you’re going to have games where there’s 20(shots) or less and you’ve got to find a way to be ready when you are called upon.”
With the Tampa Bay Lightning advancing to the Eastern Conference Final, the Crunch will not receive any reinforcements from their parent club, but with two days of rest, they are expected to give Toronto a difficult time when they go for the series sweep in Syracuse on Tuesday.
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