The Toronto Marlies are one victory away from the Eastern Conference championship after taking a 3-2 series lead with an emphatic 5-1 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Friday night.
The Marlies will have two chances to close out the series on the road, beginning with Game 6 on Sunday in Wilkes-Barre (6:05 ET, ).
Bo Groulx scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 5:39 remaining in the second period, and Easton Cowan and Logan Shaw scored early in the third to put the game out of reach.
The Penguins got on the board first when Mikhail Ilyin scored a power-play goal 6:22 into the second period, but Landon Sim notched his first goal of the playoffs 49 seconds later to tie the game at 1-1.
It was the first win of the series by a home team, and the fourth time in the five games that the team scoring first lost.
Artur Akhtyamov (10-6) stopped 32 of 33 shots to secure the win in the Toronto cage.
Sergei Murashov (8-6) made 28 saves for the Penguins.
(Toronto leads series, 3-2)
Game 1 – Wed., May 27 – Toronto 4, W-B/SCRANTON 2
Game 2 – Fri., May 29 – Toronto 2, W-B/SCRANTON 1 (OT)
Game 3 – Mon., June 1 – W-B/Scranton 5, TORONTO 3
Game 4 – Wed., June 3 – W-B/Scranton 4, TORONTO 3
Game 5 – Fri., June 5 – TORONTO 5, W-B/Scranton 1
Game 6 – Sun., June 7 – Toronto at W-B/Scranton, 6:05
*Game 7 – Tue., June 9 – Toronto at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern