Toronto, Ontario (theahl.com) …The Toronto Marlies win the Calder Cup for just the second time in franchise history.
Tonight, the Marris defeated the Chicago Wolves 4-3 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals in front of 8,682 fans at Coca-Cola Stadium to win the series 4-1 and add a 2026 title to the 2018 championship.
Toronto erased a 0-2 deficit and won its third come-from-behind victory in the series. Vinny LettieriThe leading scorer in the Calder Cup playoffs with 26 points in 23 games, he scored the Cup-winning goal with 3:11 left in the second quarter. easton cowan Recorded three assists.
goalkeeper Artur Akhtyamov Won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs. Akhtiamov, 24, a fourth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2020 NHL Draft, compiled a 15-7 record in 22 playoff games with a 2.22 goals-against average, a 0.923 save percentage and two shutouts. Akhtyamov made 27 saves in Game 5, his 20th consecutive start.
William Villeneuve Two more assists were added in Game 5; his 21 assists tied for the second-most by a defenseman in Calder Cup playoff history.
Toronto trailed 2-0 in the first quarter, then scored four goals in a row to eliminate the Wolves. first one Felix Unger SorumThe two goals of the night were scored 8 minutes and 28 seconds before the captain Josiah Slavin The lead was doubled at 2:11 of the first game.
However, Maris rookie Landon Sim tilted Matt BenningShot past the Chicago goalkeeper Kayden Primo (9-9) In the last minute of this quarter, Toronto scored three goals in a row to take the lead in the second quarter.
Bo GlucksThe eighth goal of the playoffs came on a power play to tie the game at 2-2. Then Jacob Quinlan Lettieri scored with 1:23 left to give Toronto a 4-2 lead.
Wolves continued to push forward, with Unger Sörum scoring his second goal of the game shortly after a five-for-three stretch with six seconds left before the break.
But the Marises banned visitors there. Akhetyamov made nine saves in the final frame to preserve the cup victory.
Primo made 19 saves for the Wolves, who posted an impressive postseason run, knocking off Texas, Grand Rapids and Colorado State to win their sixth Western Conference title. Chicago and the parent Carolina Hurricanes became the fourth pair of affiliated teams in the past 30 years to reach the Finals in the same season.
Under the leadership of the head coach John GrudenToronto is 16-8 in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs, winning 10 of its last 13 games. The Marris defeated the Rochester Americans (2-1), Laval Rocket (3-2), Cleveland Monsters (3-2) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (4-2) before eliminating Chicago to become just the third team in AHL history to win five series in a playoff year. Their .569 scoring percentage in the regular season (36-26-5-5, 82 points) was the lowest for the eventual Calder Cup champions since the 2002 Chicago Wolves (.538).
Toronto’s victory capped the AHL’s historic 90th season. The AHL has been in operation since 1936 and has been the top developmental league for all 32 National Hockey League teams. Today, nearly 90 percent of NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and more than 100 honorary members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent their careers in the AHL.
(Toronto series win, 4-1)
Game 1 – Friday, June 12 – Toronto 4, Chicago 2
Game 2 – Sunday, June 14 – Toronto 5, Chicago 4 (OT)
Game 3 – Tuesday, June 16 – Toronto 1, Chicago 0
Game 4 – Thursday, June 18 – Chicago 4, Toronto 3 (OT)
Game 5 – Friday, June 19 – Toronto 4, Chicago 3
About two decades in the American Hockey League, TheAHL.com feature writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. In 2016, he received the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the league.
