Penguins rally past Marlies 5-3 to cut series deficit
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s third-period burst turned Game 3 into a series swing, with Ville Koivunen and Sergei Murashov exposing Toronto’s cracks.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton did more than avoid a 3-0 hole. It walked into Coca-Cola Coliseum, seized the third period, and turned a 2-2 deadlock into a 5-3 win over the Toronto Marlies that pulled the Eastern Conference Final back into view. Toronto still led the best-of-seven series 2-1 after Game 3, but the Penguins’ response was the kind that changes how a bracket feels: not a scramble, but a reset.
The pivot came after the Penguins had spent much of the night chasing Toronto’s pace and net-front pressure. Instead of letting the Marlies dictate every shift, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton spread the damage across multiple lines, with Aidan McDonough, Bill Zonnon and Atley Calvert combining for seven points and forcing Toronto to defend more than one threat. McDonough’s first-period power-play goal mattered just as much as the late surge because it was Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s first man-advantage goal of the series, a small crack that may have opened the door to a bigger one. Then Ville Koivunen snapped the 2-2 tie with 12:12 left in the third period, and the Penguins suddenly had the leverage.
That finish was no accident. Zonnon supplied the go-ahead goal in the third, Koivunen delivered the winner, and Tanner Howe closed it with an empty-netter as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton kept Toronto from settling the game back into its preferred grind. The Penguins also took another road result in stride, improving to 4-1 away from home in the playoffs and extending a wild pattern that now has seen 10 straight games in this matchup go to the visiting team, a streak that dates back to the 2022-23 season.
Sergei Murashov was the other difference-maker. He made 36 saves, was named the game’s first star and kept Toronto from cashing in after Vinni Lettieri opened the scoring and Luke Haymes added another Marlies goal. Marc Johnstone also scored his first goal since March 14, ending a 24-game drought, but Toronto never found the late push it needed once Koivunen broke through. Artur Akhtyamov stopped 29 of 33 shots in the loss.
Game 4 was set for Wednesday, June 3, at 7 p.m. back in Toronto, with Games 5, 6 and 7 scheduled for June 5, June 7 and June 9 if needed. The Penguins did not just win a game. They exposed a series that still belonged to Toronto, but no longer looked under control.
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