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Marlies on the brink of elimination, Scott receive top honors

May 25, 2019, 2:47 PM ET [114 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Marlies power play was a major contributing factor to their first and second sweeps over Rochester and Cleveland, but their inability to break through against the Charlotte Checker has the club on the brink of elimination after a 4-1 loss in Game 5 of the Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Friday.

The Marlies opened the scoring on the man advantage with Trevor Moore converting for his fourth goal of the postseason, but the power play fizzled from that point, going scoreless in five other opportunities and surrendering two short-handed goals that changed the momentum and made the difference in the contest.




Nicolas Roy tied the game late in the first after Rasmus Sandin mishandled a bouncing puck at the point of a Marlies power play, and following Steven Lorentz’s game-winner 18 seconds into the middle frame, Haydn Fleury beat Michael Hutchinson to make it 3-1.

Toronto was stymied by veteran Dustin Tokarski, who made 40 saves for his second victory of the series and now head to Charlotte down 3-2 in the best of seven series with Game 6 at Bojangles Coliseum on Sunday night, but in spite of the large task of winning two games on the road to advance to the Calder Cup Final in front of them, Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe believes his young group can bounce back and force a deciding Game 7.

“I believe in our group. I think we have to stay positive here. We’ve got to go out and win one game on the road. We've played very well on the road as a team and we've played very well in Charlotte. We are very comfortable there.” Keefe said after the game. “At this point it's a tough task ahead, we know that, and the biggest challenge of all is you’re facing a very good team, but we believe in our group. I think we're going to have a good travel day tomorrow, we'll get down there, we'll get settled in, we'll get excited to play a game. I expect it to be our best game this series. Our guys don't want to go home.”

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Maple Leafs goaltending prospect Ian Scott capped off a great season that saw him as a member Team Canada at the 2019 World Juniors and go to the Memorial Cup with the Prince Albert Raiders, as the 20-year-old was named the Canadian Hockey League’s Goaltender of the Year on Saturday.




Scott went 38-8-2, with a 1.83 GAA and .932 save percentage during the regular season and went 16-7 in the WHL playoffs and beat out Buffalo Sabres prospect and OHL most outstanding player Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Rouyn-Noranda’s Samuel Harvey for the honors.

The Leafs 2017 fourth round pick signed a three-year entry-level contract earlier this season and expected to play for either the Marlies or ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers next season.

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