Jerry D'Amigo scored the winner with less than two minutes left as the Toronto Marlies defeated the Rochester Americans 4-3 in American Hockey League playoff action Saturday.
D'Amigo scored his second of the game after taking a backhanded pass from Matt Frattin and firing a shot from the slot past Americans goaltender David Leggio.
D'Amigo has scored both game-winners in the post-season, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series after the Marlies took Game 1 by a score of 4-3 on Thursday.
Mike Zigomanis and Nicolas Deschamps also scored for Toronto. Ben Scrivens made 23 saves for the win in front of a sold out Ricoh Coliseum.
Marcus Foligno, Phil Varone and T.J. Brennan replied for Rochester. Leggio stopped 21 shots in the loss.
Toronto got off to a quick start just 44 seconds into the game. After a Deschamps dump-in, Pascal Dupuis chased it down behind the net with Leggio out to play it. He stripped the Americans goalie of the puck then dished to D'Amigo who had an empty net for the easy tap-in.
It was D'Amigo's third goal of the post-season.
The Marlies bookended the period with a late goal on the power play. Jake Gardiner's point shot was blocked, but it bounced to the top of the left circle right to Zigomanis who slapped the rolling puck over Leggio's shoulder for his second of the playoffs.
It was a chippy opening period with seven minor penalties handed out by the officials.
Toronto nearly made it a 3-0 game 4:39 into the second period. Nazem Kadri deked around Leggio, but his backhand shot drifted along the goal-line and bounced off the post before being cleared by the Americans.
Rochester finally got on the board at 10:48. Foligno circled around the net, picked up a pass from Maxime Legault and snapped a shot by Scrivens for his second of the series.
The Americans then tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal of their own at 12:32. Foligno worked the puck to the front of the Marlies' net, and in the ensuing scrum it bounced out to Varone who backhanded it home from the left side of the goal.
But Toronto regained the lead before the period was out. After dishing out a big hit inside the Rochester blue-line, Frattin picked up the puck and fired a shot that Leggio kicked out, but it went right to Deschamps who had a wide open net to score.
Rochester tied the game 3:21 into the third period. Deschamps tried to clear the zone through the middle, but Brennan picked it off and tucked a shot inside Scriven's blocked side arm.
The series shifts to Rochester, N.Y., for Game 3 on Monday and Game 4 if necessary on Wednesday.
Notes: All 12 games between the two clubs this season have been decided by one goal...Announced attendance was 7,816.