The Toronto Marlies got goals from Mark Arcobello, Kasperi Kapanen, TJ Brennan, Brendan Leipsic and Connor Brown as well as a pair from Nikita Soshnikov to defeat the Albany Devils 7-2 and even up their AHL North Division Finals playoff series. The series now stands at two games apiece.
Albany opened the scoring off a Blake Pietila goal (assists to Matt Lorito and Damon Severson) to take a 1-0 lead at the Times Union Center but from there it was all Toronto. The Marlies led 2-1 after the first and 5-1 after the second, adding two more in the third. Albany added a late goal from Graham Black (assist to Severson) with 20 seconds remaining in the game to make the final 7-2.
Toronto was 4-for-9 on the power play, while Albany was 0-for-6. Marlies goalie Antoine Bibeau made 24 saves on 26 shots while Scott Wedgewood saw 17 shots and made 12 saves. Yann Danis came in in relief and made seven saves on nine shots faced.
Game five is Thursday at Albany with a 7 PM start. The Devils will look to get back on a winning track and move to within a game of the AHL’s Eastern Conference Finals.
In IIHF World Championship news, Sergei Kalinin and Team Russia defeated Latvia on Monday 4-0. The Russians got goals from Artemi Panarin, Yevgeni Dadonov, Vadim Shipachyov and another from Panarin to down the Latvians on Russia’s home ice.
Kalinin had 13:32 of ice time on 20 shifts but did not register a shot or a point. Russia next faces Denmark on Thursday.
The WHL Finals shifted to the Pacific Northwest as the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington hosted game three between the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Seattle Thunderbirds. Brandon had won the first two games in overtime by identical 3-2 scores and were looking to go up three games to none and have a commanding lead over the T-Birds.
Devils prospect John Quenneville had both goals in regulation for the Wheat Kings as for a third straight game OT was needed to settle things and the final score was 3-2.
Quenneville opened the scoring just 5:17 into the first period (assists to Macoy Erkamps and Tim McGauley). Seattle then scored two power play goals to jump out to the 2-1 lead. Quenneville’s high sticking penalty set up the first goal, scored by Alexander True at 12:27 of the first (assists to Keegan Kolesar and Mathew Barzal). Kolesar then scored less than a minute later at 13:05 to give the Thunderbirds the lead (assists to Barzal and Ethan Bear).
And that was it for a period and a half, until Quenneville again broke through at 8:38 of the third period to knot things at two (assists to McGauley and Reid Duke). This would be it for regulation, as the game would head to a third straight overtime game with the final score guaranteed to be 3-2 again.
In the extra session, Brandon would go up 3 games to none and move to the verge of a WHL championship, representing that league in the Memorial Cup when Reid Duke scored just 2:59 in (assist to Mitch Wheaton). Quenneville was named the game’s second star (Seattle’s Barzal was the third and Duke was the first). Quenneville is now second in WHL playoff scoring with 26 points, behind only teammate Nolan Patrick, who has 27 points.
Seattle went 2-for-5 on the night with the extra man while Brandon was 0-for-3 on the power play. Wheat Kings’ goalie Jordan Papirny made 22 saves on 24 shots faced for the win while the Thunderbirds’ Landon Bow was 32-of-35 in the loss.
Game four, with the Wheat Kings able to clinch is Wednesday at Seattle.