TORONTO — “We! Want! The! Cup!” chants thundered throughout Coca-Cola Coliseum.
Four enthusiastic rounds of The Wave rounded the barn.
Toronto was thirsty for a hockey championship in late June, and the city rejoiced in ending the drought — which dates all the way back to 2018.
The Toronto Marlies are Calder Cup champions, again.
And again, they completed the feat at home, defeating the Chicago Wolves 4-3 in Friday’s game and 4-1 in a spirited series that, mercifully, will not be returning to Chicago.
Always better to win it at home, eh?
“I mean, the noise out there, the amount of people — it’s just the love. You can hear the chants,” captain Logan Shaw said, just a free kick away from the World Cup hullabaloo on the same plot of Exhibition Place asphalt.
“Toronto’s a hockey city, obviously.”
Kudos to the crowd, and to a (mostly) veteran AHL club that few picked to go the distance but grinded through hockey’s final pro tournament victorious.
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.
Toronto responded with four unanswered 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.
Goalie Artur Akhtyamov — a touch shaky early — locked in when it mattered.
“It’s pretty easy to say that we wouldn’t be where we are right now if it wasn’t for him,” Shaw said.
And the crowd exploded during the second-period rally.
“Gives us a lot of juice,” head coach John Gruden said.
While Unger Sorum would narrow Toronto’s 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.
The Marlies proved champions on a banner night.
Time to hang a second one.
• GM John Chayka’s big takeaway from the Marlies’ run?
Toronto has something in 20-year-old defenceman Ben Danford, who has been developed properly within the system.
“High-character kid that’s doing everything you can to maximize his abilities and really understands his role, understands what he brings to the table, and is committed to it,” Chaya praised. “I’ve been really impressed that he’s got a great path.”
That doesn’t mean you should pencil Danford into an NHL lineup just yet.
“It’s going to be a process with him,” Chayka said. “We’ve got lots of great options now on the right side of our defence. We’re going to bring him up the right way. But at the right time, when afforded the opportunity, he certainly projects to be an impact player at the NHL level eventually.”
• Kudos to the rowdy Marlies faithful, fully engaged from puck drop to buzzer. The energy at Coca-Cola Coliseum was off the charts.
A taste of what could exist at Scotiabank Arena were the diehards not priced out.
• Boy, this Sim is fun to watch. Fearless, with a motor that won’t quit. In every scrum. Never turns down a hit or a chirp. Nice to see him rewarded with a goal in the clincher.
“He’s got lots of energy,” Gruden says. “He fits right in with our group.”
• How rare is it for the farm team and its NHL club to reach the championship round in the same season?
Chicago and Carolina became the fourth pair of affiliates in the last 30 years to do so (Charlotte and Florida in 2025, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Pittsburgh in 2008, and Rochester and Buffalo in 1999).
As the NHL’s assistant coach carousel spins, does Gruden’s AHL success earn the 56-year-old more attention?
He previously served with the Islanders and Bruins, helping Boston to the NHL’s best regular-season record in 2022-23.
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