Toronto Marlies/Maple Leafs goaltender Artur Akhtyamov (70) was awarded the Second Star of the Game for his 32 saves off 33 shots in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Finals. (Source: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images)The Toronto Marlies beat the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 5-1 in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Finals to go up 3-2 in the series.
The first period ended at a stale-mate with each side going 0-for-1 in the power play. Toronto edged out Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 13-10 in shots.
After opening the second period on a 4-2 shooting run, the Pens found themselves on their second power play where forward Mickhail Ilyan scored the game-opening goal with a one-timer from the left interior hash-marks for the 1-0 lead for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. That lead was short-lived as just 50 seconds later, Marlies defenceman Ben Danford put in a shot from the point that deflected off the stick of forward Landon Sim to tie the game at 1-1 for the Leafs AHL affiliates. After Toronto had gotten past a 3-0 shooting run from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton that lasted 7:08 minutes including surviving the Penguins' third power play, the Marlies scored on the first shot of their second man-advantage courtesy of Benoit-Olivier Girouix to go up 2-1 after 40 minutes.
Toronto blew the game wide open in the final period as at the 2:57 mark, forward Easton Cowan dangled the puck past the legs of Pens defenceman Chase Pietila to put in Toronto's third and insurance goal. Just 1:17 minutes later, forward and captain Logan Shaw put in another shot off a rebound after Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov had already made two saves to add some cushioning to the lead at 4-1. Even before the empty-netter in the end, the Marlies had Game Six set firmly on their sights.
Toronto goalie and AHL All-Star Artur Akhtyamov made 32 saves off 33 shots for a save percentage of 0.970.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goalie and AHL All-Star Murashov made 28 saves off 32 shots for a save percentage of 0.875.