After leading the Toronto Marlies forwards with 69 points during the regular season, Spencer Abbott had gone goalless through three rounds of the Calder Cup Playoffs and looked for something to change his luck, so the former Hobey Baker Award finalist did the unthinkable and shaved off his playoff beard.
“I did that today.… Abbott said. “It wasn’t working for me personally, so I tried to switch something up.…
The change worked wonders for the former Hobey Baker Award finalist, as he scored the first hat trick of his pro career in a 4-1 Marlies victory over the Texas Stars at Ricoh Coliseum on Thursday night, which evened the best-of-seven Western Conference Final at two games apiece.
Toronto’s power play clicked on the night, as Abbott registered all three goals with the man advantage. TJ Brennan had three assists, Peter Holland added two helpers and leading scorer Jerry D’Amigo tallied into an empty net, while Radek Faksa broke Drew MacIntyre’s shutout bid late in the third.
The Marlies played a more defensively sound and responsible game in front of MacIntyre, who shined in a 27 save effort in his ninth post-season victory.
“We’ve done a good job this year responding when we’ve dealt with adversity.… Marlies coach Steve Spott said after the game. “We lost two in a row, we definitely didn’t play the way that we wanted to play yesterday and it was nice to get back on the ice tonight and have a rebound game.…
Toronto did not have the services of defenseman Korbinian Holzer on Thursday, who suffered a lower body injury in Game Three and was replaced by Dylan Yeo. Spott indicated following the game that the veteran blueliner will be out for some time.
The two clubs face each other at Ricoh Coliseum for the final time at 3pm on Saturday before returning to Texas for Game 6 on Monday and a potential Game 7 Tuesday night.
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The Marlies and St. John’s IceCaps are the only Canadian teams still alive in the post-season after the Montreal Canadiens were eliminated by the Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York, which undoubtedly brought joy to many of the members of Leafs Nation on Thursday.
The Habs were the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup in 1993, beating Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings in five games. Since their 24th Championship, Montreal has reached the Conference Final twice(2010 and 2014), while Toronto has made it to the Conference Final three times(1994, 1999 and 2002).
Today is an anniversary that many fans do not want to remember, the infamous Game 7 of the 1993 Campbell Conference Final against Los Angeles in which Gretzky scored a hat trick in a 5-4 victory at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Before winning their first World Series in 86 years in 2004, all you would hear about from Boston Red Sox fans were references to memories of past losses, such as Bucky Dent’s home run in the 1978 playoff game at Fenway, Bill Buckner’s booted groundball in the 1986 Series against the Mets or Aaron Boone’s extra inning homer in 2003.
The pain of those events has been assuaged by three World Championships over the past decade and the only thing that will make the pain of 1993 go away for Leaf fans is a Stanley Cup before they move on to meet their maker.
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