The conference finals conclude this afternoon with the Cleveland Monsters and Toronto Marlies meeting in Game 5 of the North Division at Rocket Arena (3 p.m. ET, 
).
This is the ninth winner-take-all game in this year’s Calder Cup playoffs and the most winner-take-all games in a single playoff season. The Marlies have won two of these games, beating Rochester at home in the first round and beating Laval on the road in the conference semifinals.
Today’s winner will face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Monsters are competing for their second conference finals appearance in three years. The Marlies have reached the AHL Final Four six times, most recently in 2019.
Toronto won 5-2 on Friday night to advance the series to Game 5 today. Ryan Twilberg (5-3-8) Scored two goals and one assist Artur Akhtyamov (6-4, 2.20, .922) made 36 saves.
“It’s a good victory, but we have to have short memories,” Akhtiamov said. “We need to win one more game. We’re going to keep going.”
“They found their confidence,” head coach John Gruden said of his team in Game 4. “We’ve got to do it again. We’ve got to bottle it up, understand what success looks like and make sure we’re ready to go.”
Toronto’s opening 20 minutes on Thursday set the tone for the rest of the game. Tverberg scored a power-play goal at 13:28 of the game, marking the first time in the series that Mali scored the first goal of the game or in the first period. It also gave them the lead going into halftime for the first time in the entire series.
Toronto also had 11 shots on goal in the first period, ending a streak of 17 consecutive periods with single-digit goals.
“Our fourth line— Johnson–Pezzetta–pungent “It’s a huge confidence boost for our team,” Gruden said.
Alex Nylander (3-0-3) also scored a power-play goal to give Toronto a 2-for-5 man advantage in Game 4. Logan Shaw (5-5-10) and Jacob Quinlan (1-4-5) each added a goal and an assist.
“We followed the script early and had some discipline. We wanted to get as many five-on-five games as possible,” Monsters head coach said Trent Vogelhuber. “Congratulations to a desperate team and a goalkeeper who performed well.”
