Wilkes-Barre/Scranton/Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Sergei Murashov (1) was designated Player of the Game for his 36 saves off 39 shots in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals. (Source: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images)The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton beat the Toronto Marlies 5-3 in Game Three to cut the Marlies lead in the Eastern Conference Finals to 2-1.
The first period saw no shortage of action with a combined 31 shots with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton just edging Toronto 16-15. For the first 12:15 minutes, the Pens outshot the Marlies 13-8 with the seven shots before the last one all belonging to the Penguins. The final shot in that time frame not only belonged to Toronto, but it was the game-opening goal scored by forward Vinni Lettieri to put the Marlies up 1-0. The lead was short-lived however as 50 seconds later, Toronto put Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on their first power play and despite initially giving up three short-handed shots, the Pens punched in the equalizer with their first shot of the man-advantage courtesy of a tip-in shot by forward Aidan McDonough from Gabe Klassen to go into first intermission level at 1-1.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got a head start in the second period with a 5-1 shot advantage in the opening 6:06 minutes, including two shots in their second power play. Eventually with the shot volume came the go-ahead goal as forward Bill Zonnon put in a puck that had been teetering on the goal line after being partially denied by Marlies goalie and AHL All-Star Artur Akhtyamov off a McDonough shot. For the rest of the period, Toronto outshot the Pens 15-7 where the Marlies produced seven of their shots on two back-to-back but unsuccessful power plays that intersected for eight seconds. Still, this time Toronto took advantage of the shot advantage with forward Luke Haymes netting the equalizer after the hitting a shot that ricocheted off the skate of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defenceman Owen Pickering into the goal to level the game 2-2 after 40 minutes.
Toronto's luck would change on a dime in the final frame as despite outshooting the Pens 4-2 with just one shot in their third power play in the opening 6:04 minutes, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton would put up three straight shots for the next 4:35 minutes with the last two being a Ville Koivunen goal and the last one being the game-winner by forward Atley Calvert to go up 4-2 and take the lead for good. Forward Marc Johnstone gave the Marlies a fighting chance by cutting the deficit to 4-3 with 52 seconds to go in regulation, but Penguins forward Tanner Howe shut all that down with an empty-netter 16 seconds later.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goalie and AHL All-Star Sergei Murashov made 36 saves off 39 shots for a save percentage of 0.923.
Toronto goalie Akhtyamov made 29 saves off 33 shots for a save percentage of 0.879.