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With the parent Maple Leafs contemplating their early playoff exit and a significant roster change over this summer, the Toronto Marlies will be facing a foe in the Calder Cup Playoffs that they are quite familiar with.
The Marlies open the second round at Ricoh Coliseum on Thursday against the Syracuse Crunch, the club that eliminated Toronto from the post-season in a hard fought seven-game series last year in which every game was won by the home team.
Unlike last season, where Syracuse had the home-ice advantage and Tampa Bay bolstering their lineup because they did not make the playoffs, the Crunch will start the series on the road thanks to the Marlies AHL-best 54-18-2-2 regular season record and will not have the services of NHL-level talent such as Cory Conacher, Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde, Adam Erne, Slater Koekkoek and Jake Dotchin, who are playing or in reserve for the parent Lightning against Boston.
The Marlies were beneficiaries of the Leafs being eliminated by the Bruins, as they got winger Andreas Johnsson and defenseman Travis Dermott back for a deciding Game 5 against Utica and the tandem combined for four points in a 4-0 victory last Sunday.
JOHNSSON Scores!! 🚨
— David Nestico (@davidnestico200) April 29, 2018
What a shot, it's 3-0 Marlies! 🔥#MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/APbuwRhjMR
The Crunch are expected to give Toronto a difficult challenge after scoring a league-high 18 goals in a three-game sweep of the Rochester Americans in the first round, while the Marlies ran into a hot goaltender in the Comets Thatcher Demko and were pushed to the limit. Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe believes that the tough series against Utica will help his team against Syracuse.
“Having the adversity of playing on the road (in Utica), it’s going to be very similar in Syracuse, (the Crunch) play a similar style. Keefe said about the upcoming series. “(Comets coach) Trent Cull was a member of their coaching staff last season, so all those things serve us well.…
Toronto is a vastly different team from last season. Seth Griffith, Cal O’Reilly, Brendan Leipsic, Kerby Rychel, Steven Oleksy, Sergey Kalinin, Rinat Valiev, Andrew Campbell and Antoine Bibeau are no longer with the organization, Kasperi Kapanen is playing for Finland in the World Championships and goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo (who took over for an injured Garret Sparks) was loaned this season to the Chicago Wolves.
Sparks struggled in two road losses against Utica, but Keefe had confidence in the 24-year-old (who won the Baz Bastien Award (the AHL’s Vezina Trophy with a 1.79 GAA, .936 save % and 31-9-1 record) and he bounced back with a 37-save shutout effort on Sunday.
CARL Grundstrom AGAIN!! 🚨
— David Nestico (@davidnestico200) April 29, 2018
2-0 Marlies!! 🔥🔥#MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/vVKvATmi7m
Besides the reinforcements from the Leafs, Toronto’s offense benefited from winger Dmytro Timashov stepping up and leading the club with five points and some late season additions from Sweden in Pierre Engvall and Carl Grundstrom.
The slick-skating Engvall (a 2014 seventh round pick), scored eight points in nine games at the end of the regular season and added a pair of goals in the first round. Grundstrom, the Leafs 2016 second round pick, scored three goals against Syracuse in the playoffs last season and repeated that feat against Utica. *******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact… button at the top of the page.*******