The Penguins’ quest for the Calder Cup will continue on Wednesday. And it will require a trip to Canada.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is set to take on Toronto in the Eastern Conference Finals, with the best-of-seven series opening Wednedsay at Mohegan Arena.
The Penguins and Marlies will face off in NEPA for Game 1 and Game 2 on Wednesday and Friday with puck drop for both contests at 7:05 p.m.
From there, the series shifts north of the border for Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5 (if necessary) at Toronto’s Coca-Cola Colisuem with all three scheduled for 7 p.m. on June 1, June 3 and June 5, respectively.
If needed, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton would host the final two meetings. Game 6 would be 6:05 p.m. on June 7 and Game 7 is set for 7:05 p.m. on June 9.
The Penguins are in the conference finals for the first time since 2014. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has reached the Calder Cup Finals three times since the franchise’s inception in 1999 — most recently in 2008 — but has yet to win a championship.
This time around, the Penguins had the best regular season record of the four teams left standing as all four division champions in the AHL have already been eliminated. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (46-17-7-2) had 101 points and Toronto finished 36-26-5-5 for 82 points.
The Western Conference Finals will pit Colorado (41-20-6-5, 93 points) against Chicago (36-21-8-7, 87 points).
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Toronto split two tightly contested regular season games. The road team won both games by a 4-3 score with the Marlies’ victory coming in overtime in November. The Penguins’ win came in late March.
Both teams are coming off of winner-take-all triumphs in Game 5 of their respective division finals series. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton hammered Springfield 8-1 on Saturday night while Toronto stunned host Cleveland 3-2 on Sunday afternoon with a pair of late goals.
The Penguins are 6-3 so far in the playoffs. A second-place finish in the Atlantic Division gave them a first-round bye. From there, they beat rival Hershey in four games before edging the Thunderbirds in five.
Center Tristan Broz leads the Penguins with nine points in nine games thanks to a four-point outburst on Saturday night. Goalie Sergei Murashov has been strong, entering the series with a 1.74 GAA and a .943 SV%.
Toronto, meanwhile, has had the longest path to reach this point, playing a league-high 13 playoff games, going the distance in every series. The Marlies finished fourth in the North Division and had to play in the best-of-three opening round, edging Rochester 2-1.
From there, Toronto knocked out top-seeded Laval in five games before surviving another Game 5 vs. Cleveland in improbable fashion. The Monsters led 2-1 with five minutes left in the third period but lost in regulation.
Marlies captain Logan Show tied it up with 4:30 to play and Easton Cowan scored the series-winner with just 11.3 seconds left on a fortunate play where he was able to tap in a partial fan of a shot by a teammate.
Toronto boasts three of the top four scorers in the playoffs with veteran Vinni Lettieri topping the list with 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in 12 games. Shaw has 11 points in 13 games and William Villeneuve sitting as the highest-scoring defenseman in the league, also at 11 in 13.
Artur Akhtyamov has handled the bulk of the goaltending for Toronto, earning seven of the Marlies’ eight wins with a 2.18 GAA and a .922 SV%.
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