The Eastern Conference Finals begin tonight as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins host the Toronto Marlies in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series (7:05 ET, 
).
Both teams survived hard-fought five-game victories in the division finals to get here, the Penguins’ first conference final since 2014 and the Marlies’ first since 2019.
Down a goal with less than five minutes left in Game 5 at Cleveland on Sunday, Toronto scored twice – including Easton Cowan’s game-winner with 11.3 seconds remaining – to eliminate the Monsters. They headed to Wilkes-Barre after the game and returned to practice Tuesday.
“Winning the way we did made that six-hour bus ride not seem as long,” head coach John Gruden said Tuesday. “The practice was good today, it was crisp, our guys are mentally sharp and it (Game 1) should be a good one.”
Toronto has played the maximum 13 games through their first three rounds, becoming just the third team in AHL history to win three winner-take-all games in a single postseason.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton dominated Springfield, 8-1, in their deciding Game 5 on Saturday, a surprising end to a series that was evenly matched and tightly contested through the first four games.
“It’s offense by committee,” Penguins head coach Kirk MacDonald said after Saturday’s win in which all 12 forwards recorded at least one point. “We expect everybody to contribute. The way we want to attack offensively as a five-man unit, there’s going to be somebody different every night.”
Tristan Broz (3-6-9) had two goals and two assists in Game 5, Ville Koivunen (3-4-7) added two goals and an assist, and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (2-1-3) scored twice in his return to the Penguins lineup after missing the previous five games.
“We played to our identity from start to finish,” MacDonald said. “When they want to put their minds to it these are the results they get.”
“They’re a dangerous team,” Gruden said of the Penguins. “We’re going to have to make sure we manage the puck and don’t feed into their transition.”
Vinni Lettieri (6-7-13), who scored in the opening period for Toronto on Sunday before assisting on both third-period goals, leads the AHL in playoff scoring.
Artur Akhtyamov (7-4, 2.18, .922) has made nine consecutive starts in net for the Marlies; Sergei Murashov (6-3, 1.74, .943) has gone the distance this postseason for the Penguins, but has never faced Toronto in his career.
The teams split their two regular-season meetings in 2025-26: a 4-3 overtime win by the Marlies on Nov. 5, and a 4-3 regulation victory by the Penguins on Mar. 22.
