The Toronto Marlies have dug themselves a hole in the Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final, as Carter Camper scored the game winner at 9:09 of overtime to give the Hershey Bears a 3-2 overtime victory at the Giant Center on Saturday.
The win gives the Bears a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, as it heads to Ricoh Coliseum for the next three games.
Connor Brown and Mark Arcobello scored for Toronto, who outshot Hershey 40-21 on the evening but were denied on numerous occasions by veteran goalie Justin Peters. Garret Sparks made 18 saves in his first start since Game 1 of the Albany series.
Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe shook up his lineup after a subpar effort in Game 1, scratching forwards Tobias Lindberg, Frederik Gauthier and defenseman Viktor Loov and inserting Sam Carrick, Colin Smith and Rinat Valiev.
Toronto dominated play in the first two periods and scored the opening goal as they did in Game 1. Brown tallied 6:33 into the game, converting a Josh Leivo pass to beat Justin Peters for his seventh goal of the playoffs, tying Grand Rapids Tyler Bertuzzi for the Calder Cup goal scoring lead.
Connor Brown with the go-ahead goal for the @TorontoMarlies. #TORvsHER pic.twitter.com/aLTVQFr9j2
— AHL (@TheAHL) May 21, 2016
The Marlies outshot Hershey 15-2 in the first and nearly increased their lead on a couple occasions, but the Bears evened the score before the end of the period as Chandler Stephenson drew Garret Sparks out of the net and tallied from a bad angle.
Hershey was outshot 12-5 in the middle frame, but took the lead on the power play, as Jakub Vrana's shot deflected off of Andrew Campbell's leg past Sparks, but Toronto tied the game late in the second as a Leivo pass went off Arcobello's skate and over the line.
Mark Arcobello tying it up. #MarliesLive https://t.co/gpLlJDBmU9
— Z-Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) May 22, 2016
Toronto's Brendan Leipsic had the best scoring opportunities in overtime, as his chance from just outside the crease went high and wide of Peters, but minutes later the Marlies could not escape their own zone and Dustin Gazley fed a backhand pass to Camper for the winner.
Game 3 will be on Wednesday at Ricoh Coliseum.
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