After a great end to the season that still left the Marlies stuck in the play-in round, everyone's collective breath was held to see what would happen next. The best-of-three play-in started off well, with a shutout by the Marlies against the Rochester Americans here in Toronto for game #1.

The Amerks flipped the script for game #2, getting a shutout against the Marlies at the game in Rochester, so it all came down to a final third game to decide it all last Sunday and the Marlies came through. The Marlies beat the Amerks 4-2, getting them past that play-in round where they lost last season against the Cleveland Monsters.

Now the Marlies move on to the division semi-final against the Laval Rocket. They played eight games against the Rocket this season, winning five of them. That sounds like the odds are good the Marlies can take this, but the Rocket are not to be taken lightly, having finished first place in the North Division this season and with some high profile prospects on board and reliable veterans like Alex Belzile, who in ways reminds me of Logan Shaw.

Like a Fine Wine, Alex Belzile is Getting Better With Age – Rocket Laval
Rocket Laval - AHL Affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens

They also have a top forward in Sammy Blais, which, hmm... where have I heard that name before?

Oh, right.

Leafs put Sammy Blais on waivers
The roster crunch finally arrived.
PPP LeafsCathy Squires

Shaw said after Sunday's game "we're going to soak this moment up, but come tomorrow we have to start thinking about Laval," adding, "their rank is awesome, their rank is one of the best ones to play in the league. We know it's going to be loud, but that's playoff hockey and we're all looking forward to it."

While Shaw may have been talking about the fans in that building, which is a really nice arena with a 10,000 seat capacity so it is literally loud, "loud" here probably also means on the ice. The Rocket have real heavy hitters who love the battle of the game, like Florian Xhekaj. Further, the Marlies finished the regular season with two straight wins against the Rocket, so there's some recent history between these two teams to fuel the fire. The Marlies have their own loud player deployed in Michael Pezzeta, who used to play for the Rocket, and on the skill side we all want to see more of what Easton Cowan can do. At a minimum, this will be a very entertaining series.

Dennis Hildeby will start in net for the Marlies tonight as confirmed yesterday by John Gruden at practice. Both Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov are available to them and they could alternate through the series. It seems likely Laval will go with Kaapo Kähkönen.

The Rocket will have the home ice advantage for this best-of-five series, so the first game tonight is in Laval starting at 7:00 p.m.. Here's the full schedule, with Sunday and Tuesday being the only possible games in Toronto, Sunday guaranteed, Tuesday not, but we'll know more by late Friday night.

Tonight's game is broadcast on RDS in French in Quebec, but in Toronto you can only watch it with a FloSports subscription.

Toronto Marlies