When these two teams met at this stage last Spring, both teams held home-ice advantage all the way through, culminating in Syracuse winning Game 7 before finishing as runners-up in the 2017 Calder Cup Final. Toronto and Syracuse then met eight times throughout the 2017-18 regular season, with the Marlies holding the upper hand (5-2-1).
The games at Ricoh Coliseum were generally tightly contested, with the teams scoring just nine goals apiece and the Marlies‘ taking five points to the visitors’ three. It was a different story at the War Memorial in Syracuse, however, where the Marlies out-scored their hosts 16-10 and took six of the eight points on offer.