The Toronto Marlies have been forced to a fifth and deciding game in their best-of-five Calder Cup Western Conference Quarterfinal series with Grand Rapids, as the Griffins scored three times in the third period and held off a late Toronto rally to win 5-4 at Van Andel Arena on Saturday night.
Tomas Nosek scored a pair, Andreas Athanasiou, Teemu Pulkkinen and Tyler Bertuzzi added singles for Grand Rapids and Tom McCollum made 28 saves for his second straight playoff victory. Matt Frattin, Matt Rupert, Brendan Mikkelson and TJ Brennan scored for Toronto and Christopher Gibson stopped 22 shots in the loss.
The Marlies downfall was due to poor special teams, which allowed three goals (two power play and one short-handed) on the night. Frattin scored his third goal of the series 46 seconds in to give Toronto an early lead, but the club gave the lead back less than six minutes later while on the power play, as the Griffins had a couple odd man short-handed breaks before finally capitalizing on Nosek’s first goal of the playoffs.
The Czech native put Grand Rapids in the lead later in the first on the man advantage, but Rupert tied the game early in the middle frame.
Grand Rapids broke the tie early in the third, as Athonasiou and Pulkkinen scored just over three minutes apart and then extended the lead on Bertuzzi’s second goal of the series. With Gibson pulled for an extra attacker, Mikkelson and Brennan scored to narrow it to 5-4, but the Marlies could not manage another scoring opportunity before time expired.
Game 5 will be at 5pm on Sunday in Grand Rapids. The Marlies will have defenseman Viktor Loov available to return after serving a two game suspension.
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There continues to be speculation over the price the Leafs can exact for their core players in what is expected to be a changing of the guard in Toronto.
TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on Friday that the club will endeavor to trade forward Phil Kessel and team captain Dion Phaneuf, but that they will probably have to take back high priced contracts to get for the Leafs to get significant young assets or draft picks in return.
An NHL general manager indicated to Dreger that Toronto should be able fetch a first round pick, a young NHL roster player and a good prospect, but that the return would be better if the Leafs have the cap space to take a contract that the other team wants to dispose of back.
The Detroit Red Wings and Los Angeles Kings are expected to have interest in the 30-year-old Phaneuf this summer, but the defenseman’s sizable cap hit for another six years may be too pricey for someone who should be playing around 20 minutes per night and not top pairing minutes.
Taking a player back in a potential trade is preferable for Toronto than to retain a portion of Kessel’s $8 Million salary or Phaneuf’s $7 Million cap hit to make them more economical for an interested team.
If for example, the Leafs trade Kessel to Florida and have to take back Dave Bolland’s $5.5 Million deal or center Steven Weiss comes back in a deal for Phaneuf, the cap hit would effect Toronto for three or four years and does not preclude the possibility of those players performing well and being able to be moved elsewhere in the future.
If the Leafs retain a portion of their salaries, they may get the same increased package in a deal, but the cap hit would last the entire length of Kessel or Phaneuf’s deal with no means of clearing it from their books.
The rebuild is likely to take the three or four years left on any contract Toronto takes back, so that cap hit is really inconsequential, but if the club has to retain $4 Million to move both players, that amount will still be limiting the Leafs six or seven years from now when they are hoping to be a contending team.
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