TORONTO \u2014\u00a0\u201cWe! Want! The! Cup!\u201d\u00a0chants thundered throughout Coca-Cola Coliseum.<\/p>\n
Four enthusiastic rounds of The Wave rounded the barn.<\/p>\n
Toronto was thirsty for a hockey championship in late June, and the city rejoiced in ending the drought \u2014 which dates all the way back to 2018.<\/p>\n
The Toronto Marlies are Calder Cup champions, again.<\/p>\n
And again, they completed the feat at home, defeating the Chicago Wolves\u00a04-3\u00a0in Friday’s game and 4-1 in a spirited series that, mercifully, will not be returning to Chicago.<\/p>\n
Always better to win it at home, eh?<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, the noise out there, the amount of people \u2014 it\u2019s just the love. You can hear the chants,\u201d captain Logan Shaw said, just a free kick away from the World Cup hullabaloo on the same plot of Exhibition\u00a0Place\u00a0asphalt.<\/p>\n
\u201cToronto\u2019s a hockey city, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kudos to the crowd, and to a (mostly) veteran AHL club that few picked to go the distance but grinded through hockey\u2019s final pro tournament victorious.<\/p>\n
This despite blowing a two-goal lead Thursday in Game 4 and digging a 0-2 hole early in Game 5, as Felix Unger Sorum and Josiah Slavin popped Chicago on the board in Period 1.<\/p>\n
Toronto responded with\u00a0four\u00a0unanswered goals: a (borderline high) Landon Sim tip in the final minute of the first period; a Bo Groulx power-play strike from the flank; a beautiful Jacob Quillan backhand roof job off a nifty give-and-go with Easton Cowan; and a Vinni Lettieri power-play blast.<\/p>\n
Goalie Artur Akhtyamov \u2014 a touch shaky early \u2014 locked in when it mattered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty easy to say that we wouldn’t be where we are right now if it wasn’t for him,\u201d Shaw said.<\/p>\n
And the crowd exploded during the second-period rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cGives us a lot of juice,\u201d head coach John Gruden said.<\/p>\n
While Unger Sorum would narrow Toronto\u2019s lead to one toward the end of a lengthy five-on-three power play for the Wolves, the Marlies did what they were unable to do in Game 4: hold a third-period lead, kill the clock, and finish the job.<\/p>\n
The Marlies proved champions on a banner night.<\/p>\n
Time to hang a second one.<\/p>\n
\u2022 GM John Chayka\u2019s big takeaway from the Marlies\u2019 run?\u00a0<\/p>\n