Behind a three-goal third period, the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins defeated the Toronto Marlies, 5-3, in Game 3 of the AHL Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final on Monday at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Canada.<\/p>\n
Aidan McDonough had a goal and two assists, while linemates Bill Zonnon and Atley Calvert each added one goal and one assist. Goalie Sergei Murashov made 36 saves as the Penguins cut their deficit in the best-of-7 series to 2-1. Game 4 is Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Toronto with Game 5 on Friday at 7 p.m., also in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got thrown together a couple weeks ago and we\u2019ve kind of started to find some chemistry,\u201d McDonough said in a postgame video press conference. \u201cBill\u2019s obviously a special player, such a young kid but mature above his years in terms of how he plays the game. Calvy\u2019s a treat to play with. He gives it everything every shift. We felt good out there. For us to contribute and help the team felt really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knotted, 2-2, after two periods, and the teams skating 4-on-4 because of coincidental minor penalties, Ville Koivunen broke the tie at 7:48 of the third period. Tristan Broz carried the puck into the Toronto zone and dropped a pass to Koivunen. He fed it back to Broz, who returned it to Koivunen, who wristed it past Marlies goalie Artur Akhtyamov to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
Just 2:15 later, McDonough won a puck battle in the left corner and passed to Zonnon below the goal line. Zonnon gave it back to McDonough, who\u00a0centered a backdoor pass to Calvert in front and Calvert slammed it in to make it 4-2 at 10:03.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat 4-on-4 we really turned the tide,\u201d Penguins coach Kirk MacDonald said. \u201cWe were playing on our front foot, we were aggressive. When we\u2019re at our best, we\u2019re able to push the pace and possess pucks, not sitting on our heels. The guys did a great job. Once we got that first one from Ville \u2014 and Brozer, great job \u2014 you could kind of feel the momentum shift. Then Billy\u2019s line did a great job for the eventual game-winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late in the game, Toronto pulled Akhtyamov for a sixth attacker and former Penguin Marc Johnstone scored with 51.1 seconds left to make it a 4-3 game. But with 35.9 seconds left and Akhtyamov stilled pulled for the sixth attacker, Tanner Howe scored an empty-net goal to seal it for the Penguins.<\/p>\n
Akhtyamov finished with 29 saves for Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing down three (games), that\u2019s tough,\u201d McDonough said. \u201cI like our team no matter what if we\u2019re up or down or backs against the wall or not. But to put ourselves in this spot now to get the confidence going a little bit for all of us to know when we play the right way we\u2019ll get rewarded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vinni Lettieri gave the Marlies a 1-0 lead at 12:15 of the first period. But the Penguins answered at 14:38 on the power play. With Toronto\u2019s Michael Pezzetta in the box for tripping, Gabe Klassen had his initial shot attempt blocked. He regained possession of the puck and passed it to McDonough, who redirected it past Akhtyamov to tie it at 1.<\/p>\n
The Penguins were 1 for 3 on the power play and killed all three Toronto power plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we\u2019re a great 5-on-5 team, but you\u2019ve still got to win the special teams,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cTonight, we did. Obviously, they got the better of us in the first two games. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re going to make some adjustments for Wednesday and we\u2019ll be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added McDonough: \u201cIt was nice to get the kills. The kills were really big, a ton of momentum for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the second period, the Penguins took a 2-1 lead at 2:04. McDonough carried the puck into the Marlies zone, got a step on the defender and fired a shot that Akhtyamov stopped. The puck, however, trickled through his pads and Zonnon swooped in and poked it across the goal line.<\/p>\n
However, late in the second, Luke Haymes broke in on a semi-breakaway. Penguins defenseman Chase Pietila knocked the puck away from behind, but Haymes recovered it in the corner, sent it to the front of the net where it deflected in off a Penguins player for the tying goal at 17:36.<\/p>\n
After missing the past three games with an injury, defenseman Owen Pickering returned to the lineup for the Penguins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behind a three-goal third period, the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins defeated the Toronto Marlies, 5-3, in Game 3 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[19017,49,48],"class_list":["post-70867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-penguins","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}