Last night, my local team gave my beard a few dozen more gray whiskers. Despite leaving Toronto with a 3-2 series lead, they lost Monday night putting their championship season into serious doubt. That game was ugly. After having a kick-ass penalty kill, the Marlies got under the Stars’ skin with a very physical game. So when game seven appeared to be a repeat of the earlier evening with two immediate goals, two things were racing through my mind. Number one, head coach Willie Desjardins had to find a way to shake the mental warfare the Stars were succumbing to. Number two, despite the Marlies’ lucky pair of points, my team was almost outshooting the opposition two to one, if they could keep bombarding the goalie with at least 30-35 tries, goals would start to happen.
Not sure which solution worked but before the second period ended, the Stars woke up and tied the game. The crowd was fired up. The team was energized. It was a whole new situation.
When the Stars returned from the intermission, they cranked up the energy and clobbered the Marlies with four more unanswered goals. I was relieved with the 4-2 score since they had the insurance goal to make pulling the goalie an unlikely solution…unless they were the Anaheim Ducks.
So my Stars are headed for their second try at the Calder Cup in five years. Not bad for a five-year-old franchise. If this were the NHL, it wouldn’t be quite as impressive. With the AHL any repeated success is difficult due to the league’s focus on development for NHL parents. Come next Fall, we will now have at least two banners to raise at the ceremony. I am now greedy for a third!
The Calder Cup kicks off Sunday with us facing the Eastern Conference champs, the St. John’s Icecaps who were a couple years ago, the Manitoba Moose and are the Winnipeg Jets’ AHL team.