with files from Patrick Williams
Another semifinal series opener highlights Day 9 of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Laval and Toronto get their best-of-five series under tonight at Place Bell (7 ET, 
).
Only eight points separated the division champion Rockets and the fourth-place Marlies in the regular season, with Toronto winning five of the eight head-to-head meetings between the clubs.
The Marlies are coming off a three-game winning streak against Rochester in the first round. The Rockets have had a bye and have been inactive since being swept on a two-game road trip to Toronto to close out the regular season.
The series marks the first postseason meeting between the Maple Leafs’ and Canadiens’ AHL affiliates since 2001, when the Quebec Citadelles defeated the St. John’s Maple Leafs in the semi-finals of the Canadian Division.
“Focused,” head coach Marlies John Gruden says the Toronto-Montreal rivalry. “Every time we play, it’s very good electricity. When the teams come out there it seems like the pressure rises a little bit, and now under the play-offs situation it will rise even more.”
“It’s going to be a battle out there,” said Marlies forward Michael Pezzettawho spent his first three pro seasons with Laval. “That’s the best kind of hockey. It’s going to be fun to go in there and play hard.”
Laval was 23-8-2-3 at Place Bell this season, tied for the fourth-best home record in the league. Toronto has a five-game road losing streak in the playoffs dating back to 2023.
After winning their first division title in a decade, the Ontario Reign now focus on making waves in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Their postseason journey begins with Game 1 of the Pacific Division semifinal against Coachella Valley tonight (10 ET, ).
The Reign finished first in the Pacific in 2015-16, their first season in the AHL and a year after their predecessors, the Manchester Monarchs, won the Calder Cup. They reached the Western Conference finals that spring, but playoff success has been elusive since then.
This year’s club, under a first year head coach Andrew Nkosiride a career-like path to the top.
“Our team has played well all year,” said Nkosi. “We’ve got a lot of guys blocking shots, we’ve got a really good penalty kill… For a guy that I believe our team is willing to look at, they’re really in a defense-first mindset and that makes it a lot easier for our forwards.
“It’s the sum of our parts. We play a great team game in all three areas of the ice. The guys work every day in practice and it shows. They consistently play the game inside and out and there’s real belief in the room.”
While Reign awaits an opponent, Coachella Valley is in the midst of a tough first-round series with Bakersfield.
“We’ll let them enjoy it for 10 minutes and we’ll move on to the next series,” the Firebirds head coach Derek Laxdal he said after Sunday’s win over the Condors. “These little guys, once they taste it, you want more. That’s the message we have to sell: It was good, let’s move on to the next one and get that same feeling again.”
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard (3-2-5) led the Firebirds in scoring in the first round. He was held off the scoresheet in Game 1, but scored twice in the third period of Game 2 and added a goal and two assists in Game 3.
