ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Forward Andreas Johnsson returned at the right time for the Toronto Marlies.
Johnsson scored twice as the Marlies beat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 3-1 on Friday to advance to the Calder Cup final.
Toronto is rolling into the American Hockey League championship round having won nine straight post-season games since Johnsson was loaned to the Marlies by the Maple Leafs on April 27th after the parent club was knocked out of the NHL playoffs by the Boston Bruins.
Johnsson, who was sent down alongside defenceman Travis Dermott, has produced six goals and 15 points in those nine games to sit second in playoff scoring, while Toronto has outscored the opposition 37-13 in that span.
"Getting (Dermott) and (Johnsson) back here, they just elevate our team," said Marlies captain Ben Smith.
"We kind of follow their lead. Their two guys that just play a lot of minutes. Johnny just took over the game today and found a way to score that big goal."
Johnsson fought off a defenceman at the bottom of the face-off circle, pulled the puck back and beat Alex Lyon five-hole 3:27 into the third period to put the Marlies ahead 2-1 before Trevor Moore added an empty netter.
The two teams traded power-play goals in the second period after a scoreless first.
Johnsson opened the scoring at 2:24 while on a 5-on-3 only for Travis Sanheim to respond for the Phantoms while a man up at 13:11.
Sanheim’s goal snapped the Phantoms’ scoring drought of 118 minutes 58 seconds, with Lehigh Valley’s last goal coming at 5:12 of the third period in Game 2.
Garret Sparks made 19 saves for the win as Lyon stopped 26-of-28 shots for the Philadelphia Flyers’ AHL affiliate.
Sparks has followed up a superb regular season in which he won the the Aldege ‘Baz’ Bastien Memorial award as the AHL’s outstanding goaltender by going 10-2 with a 1.96 goals-against average and .926 save percentage in the playoffs.
"I think first of all it starts from the goalie out. I thought Sparks had a phenomenal series, he continued his strong play," said Marlies forward Colin Greening.
The Marlies found themselves in a must-win situation against the Utica Comets in the first round, but have been on cruise control since beating the Comets in Game 5 to take the best-of-five series 3-2.
They swept the Syracuse Crunch 4-0 in Round 2 before completing the same feat against the Phantoms to capture the Eastern Conference title for the first time since 2012.
"Everyone’s happy," said Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe.
"Whether you’re someone that’s just gotten here or someone who’s been here for a while like myself, you finally get over that hump and you feel something special brewing around here even just to get to the finals is just a heck of an accomplishment."
Toronto will host Game 1 of the Calder Cup final at Ricoh Coliseum on Saturday, June 2. The Marlies will face the winner of the Western Conference final between the Rockford IceHogs and Texas Stars.
The 2012 Marlies, coached by Dallas Eakins, were swept by Jon Cooper’s Norfolk Admirals in the Calder Cup final. Mike Zigomanis was Toronto’s leading scorer that year while Nazem Kadri was in his second pro season. The Admirals, who at the time were the Tampa Bay Lightning’s farm team, went on to produce forwards Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn.
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