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Marlies sweep Syracuse, advance to Conference Final

May 9, 2018, 11:08 AM ET [498 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Marlies used a strong first period, special teams, stingy defense and the goaltending of Garret Sparks in a 2-1 victory over the Syracuse Crunch in Game 4 of the North Division Final and a sweep of their best-of-seven series at Onondaga War Memorial Arena on Tuesday.

Dmytro Timashov and Andreas Johnsson scored for Toronto a 2-0 lead and that was enough for the Marlies defense and Sparks, who limited Syracuse to 22 shots and held off the Crunch with key saves late in regulation when pushing for the tying goal.

“I thought our guys defended really, really hard today, especially in the second and third periods. Once we had the lead, I thought we were just very competitive defensively as a result, we did not give up very much.” Head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “The positive of coming out of this, not just the win, but there were a lot of teaching moments from this game here that I think will really help us going forward.”




Toronto took advantage of early opportunities with the man advantage. Timashov opened the scoring on the power play on a nice three-way passing play from Chris Mueller and Ben Smith and with Syracuse’s Alex Gallant ejected for an elbowing major on Mason Marchment, the Marlies extended their lead with Johnsson converting on a goal set up by fellow countrymen Timothy Liljegren and Pierre Engvall.



Toronto learned a lesson from their first round series against Utica, who they allowed to climb back into the series and force a fifth and deciding game with two losses on the road. The Marlies in their two games in Syracuse suffocated the Crunch early and took any chance to build momentum away from them.

“I think the adversity we had to face(against Utica) and having to deal with that and having to win such a big game in Game 5 and then obviously now going through that, it’s something you don’t want to have to go through again when you have a chance to close a team out.” Keefe said. “The fact that we came in here and played the type of road game we did in Game 3 obviously sets this whole series up to finish quickly. A lot of really good things from our team to be able to do this against a good team and particularly to get the series over here now.”

The series sweep now allows Toronto over a week of rest and recuperation before they open the Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final against either the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers) or Charlotte Checkers (affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes). The Phantoms lead the series 2-1 after a 5-1 victory in Charlotte on Tuesday.




The Marlies announced that the first two games of the Conference Final are scheduled for Sat. May 19 and Sun. May 20 at 4pm at Ricoh Coliseum.

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