Marlies Stave Off Elimination vs. the Monsters
The Toronto Marlies showed a bit of backbone on Friday night when they absolutely needed it. After back-to-back uneven performances and staring elimination in the face, they responded with a solid, no-nonsense effort, beating the Cleveland Monsters 5-2 to even the North Division Final at two games apiece.
The Marlies took over the game early.
For once in the series, Toronto flipped the script early. Instead of chasing the game, they scored the first two goals — a notable shift after Cleveland had opened each of the previous three games with quick 2-0 leads. From there, things settled into a much more controlled Marlies performance. Goaltender Artur Akhtyamov was steady as they come, holding the door shut for more than 57 minutes while Toronto built a comfortable 4-0 cushion.
Offensively, this was one of those nights where the goals came from everywhere, which is usually a good sign for a team trying to survive a playoff series. Ryan Tverberg and Alex Nylander both connected on the power play, Henry Thrun ripped a point shot through traffic, and Jacob Quillan added a sharp finish from just inside the blue line that caught Cleveland goaltender Zach Sawchenko off guard.
The Monsters eventually showed up, but too late to matter.
Cleveland eventually got on the board late in the third when Jack Williams spoiled the shutout bid, but Tverberg answered right back with an empty-net goal to seal it with 98 seconds left. At that point, the game stopped being about hockey and started to look like everyone just wanted to make sure the other side remembered it for Game 5.
The final stretch got messy in a hurry. Officials handed out 68 penalty minutes in the last minute and a half, including multiple misconducts and a couple of fights, as both teams clearly had no interest in backing down heading into the decider. There could still be some follow-up discipline depending on how the league views the ending.
The Marlies got contributions throughout the lineup.
One consistent theme for Toronto this postseason has been their ability to spread the offence around when they’re playing well. Ten different players picked up at least a point in this one, with Tverberg leading the way with a three-point night.
Now it all comes down to Game 5 in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. And fittingly, this is already the third straight playoff series for the Marlies that’s gone the distance in their 2026 Calder Cup run — which, at this point, probably tells you everything you need to know about how they like to do things the hard way.
[Thanks to Stan Smith for his notes about the Marlies that helped shape the post.]