Marlies return home with 2-0 lead over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

Toronto had Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on the edge before the teams ever dropped the puck for Game 3, and the next 60 minutes at Coca-Cola Coliseum could have turned the Eastern Conference Finals into a runaway. The Marlies arrived home with a 2-0 series lead after Michael Pezzetta finished Game 1 with 1:36 left in a 4-2 win and then ended Game 2 14:53 into overtime for a 2-1 victory, two straight road statements that gave Toronto a real opening to bury the series.

That edge was earned the hard way. Toronto had already survived a full series against Rochester, worked through Laval and then pushed past Cleveland in the North Division final, where the Marlies rattled off four straight wins after falling behind two games to one. Easton Cowan had already supplied one of those defining playoff moments with a late winner against Cleveland, a reminder that Toronto’s young players were not just along for the ride. They were deciding elimination games.

The question around Game 3 was not whether Toronto had momentum. It was whether the Marlies could convert it into something fatal for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The AHL noted that the two clubs had seen 10 straight head-to-head wins by the visiting team dating back to the 2022-23 season, a strange and stubborn trend that made home ice feel less like a guarantee than a test of nerve. For Toronto, “breaking the series open” meant more than winning a single game. A 3-0 lead would have put the Marlies one victory from the Richard F. Canning Trophy and a return to the Calder Cup Finals, with the Penguins staring at a near-impossible climb.

Instead, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton answered with a 5-3 win in Game 3, showing how quickly a series can pivot when late chances stop falling. Toronto still regained command at home, rolling to a 5-1 win in Game 5 before clinching the Eastern Conference championship with a 2-1 overtime victory in Game 6 on June 7. John Gruden said afterward that the Marlies had found their confidence and their “mojo,” and rookie Landon Sim later helped spark the comeback in Game 6, drawing the label “a breath of fresh air.” By the end, the 2-0 start had done its job: Toronto advanced to its third Calder Cup Finals and its first since 2018.