The Toronto Marlies upset the Laval Rocket with a 3-2 Game Five win to advance to the North Division Final. It shows how they’ve stepped up and delivered all season long.
The Calder Cup Playoff series between the Toronto Marlies and the Laval Rocket was a memorable one. Both teams traded blows and had the upper hand. Even in Game Five, the Rocket had the inside track with a 2-1 lead and great play in all three zones.
The game, like the season itself, showed how the Marlies must never be counted out. They battled back and took the game 3-2 to take the series 3-2 and upset the top-seeded Laval Rocket. The Marlies are now heading to the North Division Final, something many fans of the American Hockey League are shocked to see, even though they shouldn’t be.
Marlies Have Played Above Their Weight All Season
The Marlies aren’t an AHL juggernaut. They don’t have a surplus of young talent or elite goaltending, with years of poor drafting and an all-in mentality from the Toronto Maple Leafs limiting the AHL affiliate. The Marlies, by all means, shouldn’t be the type of team making a deep playoff run, and are the team everyone expects to implode.
It certainly felt that way halfway through the season when teams were powering through the below-freezing cold winter and running on fumes towards the All-Star Break. The Maple Leafs had their goaltending woes, and it forced them to call up Dennis Hildeby, Artur Akhtyamov, and Cayden Primeau for starts. It left the Marlies with ECHL-level goaltending for weeks. Throw in the injuries, and they had all the pieces in place to fall apart.
Instead, the Marlies remained in the mix with the North Division, including top teams like the Rocket and Syracuse Crunch. It’s a credit to the job John Gruden has done behind the bench and the buy-in the team has in the system he’s running. Gruden had the tough task of mirroring the Maple Leafs style, putting his own spin on things, and getting the players to believe that the system works (which is hard to do when the team above is playing poorly). “It’s a balancing act for sure but I enjoy being in this position,” he mentioned in an early-season conversation with The Hockey News. He’s found the right mix, and it’s why the Marlies keep winning games, even when they aren’t expected to.
Even their first playoff matchup against the Rochester Americans was one in which many counted them out. The Marlies faced an Amerks team that stumbled into the playoffs yet had the top-end talent to take over the series. The Marlies never let that happen. The Rocket have the most talented team in the North Division and arguably the AHL, yet never took control of the series. Toronto overachieved all season, and the playoffs are only a continuation of that.
The Vets Are Setting The Tone For The Prospects
The Marlies are led by their veterans, with their top four scorers this season 26 or older. Logan Shaw and Vinni Lettieri led the forward group all season and have carried the Marlies in the playoffs as well, with nine goals and six assists.
Lettieri bounced around before signing with the Marlies, playing on four teams in nine seasons. He’s the type of player teams need in the playoffs as a veteran who knows how to score in multiple ways. He has five goals in this playoff run and scored the game-winner in Game Five.
The veteran presence for the Marlies allowed their prospects to take a step forward. Easton Cowan has been great in the playoffs with two goals and four assists, while the other rookies have been valuable contributors throughout the forward unit. It’s why the Marlies never looked outmatched by the Rocket and instead could go toe to toe with them.
The Maple Leafs don’t have a great farm system and don’t have a great prospect pipeline (that, of course, will change following the draft, regardless of who they take). However, they have a culture in place that helps their prospects take a step forward. If the Maple Leafs end up rebuilding or moving in that direction, they have a good start with their AHL team.
Marlies Will Have Their Hands Full Again
The next team that the Marlies face will be the Cleveland Monsters, with the five-game series starting on Thursday night. Like the Marlies, the Monsters are a well-coached team with a mix of prospects and veterans. It sets up for a great series and presumably, one that goes the distance.
The Marlies will have tough matchups in this one, especially up the middle. The Monsters have Brendan Gaunce and Luca Del Bel Belluz centering the top two lines, and with both players playing at a high level, it’s tough to see the Marlies centers matching up with them.
That said, the Marlies will play up to the competition. They’ve done so all season and will again in the North Division Final.