Toronto Marlies/Maple Leafs forward Easton Cowan (53)scored the game-winning goal 12 seconds before the end of regulation to send the Marlies to the Eastern Conference Finals. (Source: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images)The Toronto Marlies beat the Cleveland Monsteres 3-2 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals where will face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Despite the Monsters being put on the penalty-kill three second into the game and trailing 5-2 in shots, they broke the ice first with the game-opening goal by forward Zach Aston-Reese at the 6:31 mark to go up 1-0 early in the first period. Toronto would still keep piling the shots and eventually forward Vinni Lettieri would squeeze the puck through the tiniest of gaps past Cleveland goalie Zach Sawchenko's left side to level the scores at one apiece at the 12:56 mark despite protests from Monsters players for goaltender interference. Toronto had outshot Cleveland 12-8 in the opening frame with both teams going 0-for-1 in the power play.
The Marlies couldn't carry the same energy over into the middle period as they were outshot 8-5 by the Monsters in this frame. Two of these shots came in Cleveland's second man-advantage situation of the game where forward Hudson Fasching scored after stick-handling the puck past Marlies' Michael Pezzeta and deking out Toronto goalie Artur Akhtyamov for the go-ahead goal to put the Monsters up 2-1 after 40 minutes.
In the third period, the the Leafs' AHL affiliate team didn't get their first shot until the 9:03 mark and went 0-for-2 on their second and third power plays, but just when Toronto looked like they were down for the count, forward Logan Shaw sniped the puck from the left face-off zone at the 15:30 mark to level the scores at two apiece. And then with just when it looked like overtime was inevitable, forward Easton Cowan punched in the game-winner from just outside the crease 12 seconds before the end of regulation to send Toronto to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Toronto goalie and AHL All-Star Akhtyamov made 22 saves off 24 shots for a save percentage of 0.916.
Cleveland goalie Sawchenko made 21 saves off 24 shots for a save percentage of 0.875