Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Playoff hockey in the city of Toronto is special. It’s also just about been a given for the past decade.
There are the Maple Leafs, of course, who have reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs for nine consecutive seasons. Stanley Cup hopes are high again in Toronto, as they usually are.
And there are the Marlies, the Leafs’ AHL affiliate. They have been on their own postseason run, too, qualifying for the Calder Cup Playoffs 11 times in 12 tries 10 times since 2012 (the Calder Cup Playoffs were not held in 2020 or 2021). Celebrating their 20th season this year, the Marlies have reached six conference finals, were Calder Cup runners-up in 2012 and won the championship in 2018.
A late-season slide threatened their postseason hopes. But an even later-season run got them into the playoff party.
“When it came down to looking at the standings, we needed to win or we wouldn’t have been in,” captain Logan Shaw said during media availability on Wednesday. “It’s not always the way you want it to be, but guys stepped up, which is a good thing. Coming into playoffs, we know that when it really matters, guys are going to show up and be there.”
If this spring is to go anywhere for the Marlies, it will have to start by figuring out the Cleveland Monsters. Toronto has lost 18 of its last 19 meetings with the Monsters, who have gotten goaltender Jet Greaves and defenseman Denton Mateychuk back from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Cleveland finished fifth in the division in 2024-25, but got within a goal of reaching the Calder Cup Finals last spring.
Game 1 of the best-of-three series between the teams is tonight in Cleveland. The Marlies will host Game 2 on Saturday and Game 3, if necessary, on Sunday afternoon. That’s potentially three games in less than 72 hours, with a 300-mile bus trip in the middle. For either team, lose tonight and Game 2 becomes a must-win. The Marlies couldn’t survive the first round last year, dropping a decisive Game 3 to Belleville in overtime. Cleveland has never played a best-of-three series.
While Artur Akhtyamov serves as the third goaltender with the parent Leafs, the Marlies have two-time AHL All-Star Dennis Hildeby and two-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray, the kind of goaltending depth that can move a team through the postseason.
Toronto lost 10 of 15 games, going 5-8-1-1, between Mar. 5 and Apr. 5, a stretch that brought them far closer to the North Division playoff line than may have once seemed possible. There was a home loss to Bridgeport in which the Marlies coughed up a 4-1 second-period lead. An overtime loss, also on home ice, to the Utica Comets, another last-place team.
But the Marlies earned points in each of their last six games (4-0-0-2), including a home-and-home sweep of Rochester to close out the regular season. March’s struggles had made for a dicey April, but the Marlies steeled themselves through those pressure-packed games to finally pull down a playoff spot on the next-to-last day of their season.
“We’d been talking about that for a month or so now,” forward Joseph Blandisi said of the Marlies picking up their late-season play. “We wanted to really dial in coming down the playoff stretch. I think coming into this round against Cleveland, we’re feeling pretty good about our game, and we’re happy with the way we finished the season.”
There’s hope around the Marlies, a feeling both in their dressing room and supported by their play. They have gotten through some of those rough times. And more of those moments are ahead, but this group knows that it can solidify when those times arrive.
“I think we turned the tables,” head coach John Gruden said. “The guys should feel pretty good about their game leading into playoffs.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
