Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Alex Alexyev (56) handles the puck against the Toronto Marlies during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Mikhail Ilyin (70) handles the puck as Toronto’s William Villeneuve defends during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Sebastian Aho (25) handles the puck against the Toronto Marlies during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Sergei Murashov (1) makes a save off Logan Shaw’s shot during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Sergei Murashov (1) prepares to defend the goal against Toronto’s Logan Shaw during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Mikhail Ilyin (70) and Alex Alexyev (56) celebrate after Alexyev scored the first goal of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Tanner Howe (22) reaches for the puck against the Toronto Marlies during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Rutger McGroarty (2) takes a shot against the Toronto Marlies during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Sebastian Aho (25) looks for an opening against the Toronto Marlies during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton players celebrate after a goal in the first period against the Toronto Marlies in Game 1 of the AHL Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Harrison Brunicke (45) takes the puck down the ice against the Toronto Marlies during Game 1 of the AHL Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Alex Alexyev (56) takes a shot and scores against the Toronto Marlies in the first period of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Alex Alexyev (56) handles the puck against the Toronto Marlies during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday at Mohegan Arena. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Toronto is making it a habit of scoring late to win games in the AHL Calder Cup playoffs.
Michael Pezzetta’s goal with 1:36 remaining in the third period broke a tie and gave the Marlies a 4-2 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza before a crowd of 3,447.
Easton Cowan and William Villeneuve had second-period goals and Logan Shaw added an empty-netter with 48 seconds left, as Toronto took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series and seized home-ice advantage. Game 2 is Friday at 7:05 p.m. at Mohegan Arena.
Alex Alexeyev and Rutger McGroarty scored for the Penguins and goalie Sergei Murashov made just 12 saves.
In the fifth and deciding game of the North Division Final on Sunday against the Cleveland Monsters, Toronto scored twice in the final 4:30 of the third period, including the game-winner with 11.3 seconds left, to win and advance.
The Marlies struck again late Wednesday.
“They’ve played the max games, they know they’re in a fight every time,” Penguins coach Kirk MacDonald said. “They play really hard and are a well-coached team.”
This was a game dominated by the Penguins almost everywhere except the scoreboard. They outshot the Marlies, 36-16, and had puck possession the majority of the time. But MacDonald said that meant nothing.
“I don’t think the shot clock was indicative of our game,” MacDonald said. “They outexecuted us because we were content to just play on the perimeter. We created some shots, the shot clock looked good, but we didn’t do enough to make it hard on the goalie, make it hard enough on the D. You’ve got to converge on the net.
“We did a good job of possessing pucks. We’ll look at the analytics report (Thursday) and it will look cool. But to me, we didn’t get to the net. We had the puck, but we were content to just have it and not be hard to the net.”
Marlies goalie Artur Akhtyamov stopped 34 of 36 shots.
“Overall, there was a lot of good to take from that game, but also a lot of stuff to learn from,” McGroarty said. “Execution is the biggest thing and making the most of your opportunities. A good team like that, if you let them hang around, they’re going to capitalize on their opportunities at the end of the day. They’ve got a good goalie over there and we’ve got to try to make his life a little harder. Take away his eyes.
“We got some really good looks, but with that comes second opportunities. I think there were too many one-and-dones tonight.”
Trailing, 2-1, McGroarty pulled the Penguins even at 6:01 of the third period. Tristan Broz created a turnover in the Toronto zone and passed the puck to McGroarty at the right faceoff circle dot. McGroarty skated in on Akhtyamov, who went down, skated around him and from below the goal line banked the puck in off the fallen goalie.
“It was a great play by Brozer, great forecheck forcing the turnover,” McGroaty said. “He found me, and I thought the goalie was challenging more than he was. So I tried to fake and go around him. I saw that he wasn’t on his post, so I just banked it.”
It appeared as if the game might be headed to overtime, but Henry Thrun kept the puck in the Penguins zone at the left blue line and sent it behind the net to Marc Johnstone. The former Penguin circled around and found Pezzetta in the slot just above the faceoff circles. Pezzetta wristed a shot past the glove of Murashov for the game-winner at 18:24.
Forty-eight seconds later, at 19:12, with Murashov pulled for a sixth attacker, Shaw fired the puck the length of the ice into the empty net to seal it.
Frustrations boiled over with 28.4 seconds left. Broz cross-checked Johnstone and the two of them dropped the gloves. Broz received a five-minute major penalty, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. Johnstone was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a 10-minute misconduct. Avery Hayes and Marshall Rifai also got into it and both received unsportsmanlike conduct and 10-minute misconducts.
Much of the first period was a feeling-out process between the teams. The Penguins outshot Toronto, 13-5, and had the lone power play of the period when Pezzetta was called for holding the stick at 4:44. However, the Marlies had the best scoring chance when Shaw picked up a loose puck and came in on a shorthanded breakaway. But Murashov made the save.
Alexeyev was robbed by Akhtyamov at the 11:25 mark when the Marlies goalie slid across and gloved Alexeyev’s shot from the right circle.
Alexeyev put the Penguins on the scoreboard at 16:48 when his shot from the left point found its way through a maze of bodies in front and past Akhtyamov to make it 1-0. Mikhail Ilyin and Harrison Brunicke had the assists.
Toronto only had five shots in the second period, but scored on two of them.
First, Cowan tied the game at 1:48. Then, Gabe Klassen of the Penguins was called for high-sticking at 16:45. Eleven seconds into the ensuing power play, Villeneuve rifled a shot from the center blue line into the top-right corner of the net to give the Marlies a 2-1 lead.
The Penguins will try to avoid going down, 2-0, in the series Friday.
“It would be perfect if we just went three-three-four-four and won every game, but that’s not the playoffs,” McGroarty said. “In every series, we’ve faced a little adversity and we’ve overcome it. We’ve got a really good group, guys who play for each other and fight for each other.”