The Toronto Marlies evened the best-of-seven series at two games each as they beat the Syracuse Crunch 3-2 in Toronto, Wednesday night.
Adam Erne and Ben Thomas scored for the Crunch. Erne is on a five-game points streak (2g, 3a). It was Thomas’ first professional post-season goal.
A strong start by the Marlies was the difference in the game.
Erne gave the Crunch the lead at 4:45 of the first period when a Toronto defenseman turned the puck over. The Marlies quickly drew even on Rich Clune‘s first goal of the playoffs.
Toronto scored twice on the power play in the first period when Kerby Rychel and Trevor Moore beat goalie Mike McKenna to give Toronto the 3-1 lead.
McKenna gave up three goals in 33 seconds late in the third of the 5-3 loss in Game 3 on Tuesday night and surrendered three on 16 shots tonight before being pulled in favor of backup Kristers Gudlevskis to start the second period.
Ben Thomas cut into the Toronto lead when he fired a point blast that had eyes and found the top corner over goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo shoulder.
The Crunch only had 19 shots. Kaskisuo (4-1) made 17 saves.
Game five moves to the War Memorial Arena for Game 5 on Saturday.
Boxscore
| Scoring | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse Crunch | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 / 2 |
| Toronto Marlies | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 / 4 |
| Shots | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse Crunch | 6 | 4 | 9 | 19 |
| Toronto Marlies | 15 | 10 | 4 | 29 |
| # | Skater | Pos | G | A | PIM | Shots | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Racine, Jonathan | D | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 5 | Masin, Dominik | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 11 | C | Condra, Erik | RW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 15 | Lynch, Kevin | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 16 | McGinn, Tye | LW | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 20 | A | Taormina, Matt | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 21 | Froese, Byron | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 22 | Peca, Matthew | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 25 | Brodeur, Mathieu | D | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 26 | Thomas, Ben | D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 37 | Gourde, Yanni | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -1 | ||
| 40 | Dumont, Gabriel | C | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 65 | A | Koekkoek, Slater | D | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| 73 | Erne, Adam | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 78 | Bournival, Michael | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 85 | Walcott, Daniel | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 89 | Conacher, Cory | RW | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1 | ||
| 92 | Vermin, Joel | RW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||
| # | Goalie | GA | Mins | SA | SVS | G | A | PIM | |
| 50 | Gudlevskis, Kristers | 0 | 37:50 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 56 | McKenna, Mike | 3 | 20:00 | 15 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Head Coach: Benoit Groulx |
| Assistant Coach: Jeff Halpern |
| Assistant Coach: Trent Cull |
| # | Skater | Pos | G | A | PIM | Shots | +/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | C | Campbell, Andrew | D | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1 | |
| 4 | A | Holl, Justin | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -1 | |
| 5 | Oleksy, Steve | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 6 | Nielsen, Andrew | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | ||
| 7 | Wrenn, William | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 8 | Dermott, Travis | D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 10 | O’Reilly, Cal | C | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 11 | Johnsson, Andreas | LW | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | -2 | ||
| 15 | Kalinin, Sergey | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -2 | ||
| 16 | Findlay, Brett | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 17 | Clune, Richard | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 19 | A | Leipsic, Brendan | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| 27 | Grundstrom, Carl | LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Kapanen, Kasperi | RW | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 36 | Rychel, Kerby | LW | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | ||
| 38 | Greening, Colin | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 39 | Griffith, Seth | RW | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -2 | ||
| 46 | Moore, Trevor | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| # | Goalie | GA | Mins | SA | SVS | G | A | PIM | |
| 1 | Kaskisuo, Kasimir | 2 | 60:00 | 19 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 30 | Bibeau, Antoine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Head Coach: Sheldon Keefe |
| Assistant Coach: A.J. MacLean |
Scoring
| 1st | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 4:45 | SYR | Adam Erne (2) ASST: None | |
| 5:51 | TOR | Richard Clune (1) ASST: Kerby Rychel (3) | |
| 8:05 | TOR | Kerby Rychel (2) ASST: Kasperi Kapanen (5) (PP) | |
| 16:24 | TOR | Trevor Moore (2) ASST: Cal O’Reilly (3), Seth Griffith (5)(PP) | |
| 2nd | |||
| 2:23 | SYR | Ben Thomas (1) ASST: Slater Koekkoek (2), Gabriel Dumont (1) | |
| 3rd | |||
| No Scoring | |||
| 1st | ||
|---|---|---|
| 07:31 | SYR | Mathieu Brodeur, Tripping, 2 min PP |
| 08:16 | TOR | Andrew Campbell, Interference, 2 min PP |
| 14:32 | SYR | Tye McGinn, Delay of game, 2 min PP |
| 2nd | ||
| 19:05 | SYR | Jonathan Racine, Delay of game, 2 min PP |
| 3rd | ||
| 06:48 | SYR | Cory Conacher, Slashing, 2 min PP |
| 07:26 | TOR | Andreas Johnsson, Interference, 2 min PP |
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
| PP | PIM | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse Crunch | 0 / 2 | 8 min / 4 inf | 2 G + 2 A = 4 PTS |
| Toronto Marlies | 2 / 4 | 4 min / 2 inf | 3 G + 4 A = 7 PTS |
| Arena | OFFICIALS |
|---|---|
|
Ricoh Coliseum
Attendance: 6572 Start: 7:08 pm End: 9:32 pm Length: 2:24 |
Referee: Tim Mayer (19)
Referee: Chris Schlenker (48) Linesman: Bevan Mills (53) Linesman: Dustin McCrank (81) |
North Division Finals – Series “J” (best-of-7)
N1-Syracuse Crunch vs. N2-Toronto Marlies
Game 1 – Fri., May 5 – SYRACUSE 3, Toronto 1
Game 2 – Sat., May 6 – SYRACUSE 8, Toronto 5
Game 3 – Tue., May 9 – TORONTO 5, Syracuse 3
Game 4 – Wed., May 10 – TORONTO 3, Syracuse 2
Game 5 – Sat., May 13 – Toronto at Syracuse, 7:00
Game 6 – Mon., May 15 – Syracuse at Toronto, 7:00
*Game 7 – Wed., May 17 – Toronto at Syracuse, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
(Feature Photo/TSGphoto.com)
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