Toronto Marlies Fall To Charlotte Checkers In St. Patrick’s Day Battle

The Toronto Marlies fell 5-0 to the Charlotte Checkers on Friday afternoon in the first half of a back-to-back.
In the first, Charlotte opened the scoring with a goal by Gerry Mayhew at 17:24 to take the early 1-0 lead.
In the second, the Checkers extended their lead to two with a goal by Riley Nash at 5:34. Later, Connor Bunnaman added another at 13:07 to make it 3-0 for the visitors heading into the third.
Early in the third, Lucas Carlsson scored at 5:25 to extend Charlottes lead to four. Before the period was over, Charlotte added a late goal by Zac Dalpe at 19:20, to make it 5-0 and secure the win.
The Marlies return to action on March 18th when they host the Charlotte Checkers in the second half of a back-to-back. Puck drop is at 4:00pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs app and AHLTV.
GAME SUMMARY | GAME SHEET | PHOTOS | SCRUMS
SCORING SUMMARY
Charlotte: G. Mayhew (21) (L. Carlsson, C. Bunnaman), R Nash (22) PP (L. Carlsson, G. Denisenko), C. Bunnaman (11) (Unassisted), L. Carlsson (16) PP (R. Nash, Z. Dalpe), Z. Dalpe (17) (D. Franco)
Goaltender: A. Lyon (13/13) W
Toronto: No goals
Goaltender: J. Woll (27/32) L
ON THE SCORESHEET
- Joseph Woll stopped 27 of 32 shots he faced. He is 16-2-0 this season with a 2.37 goals against average and a 0.928 save percentage.
TEAM NOTES
- The Marlies went 2-for-4 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the power play. Toronto is 12-9-0-0 when not scoring on the power play and 21-12-2-0 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
- Charlotte had a 32-13 edge in shots in all situations. Kyle Clifford led the Marlies with three shots on goal. Toronto is 18-10-2-1 when outshot by their opponent.
- The Marlies are 5-3-1-0 against Central Division opponents and are 1-1-1-0 against the Checkers.
RECORD WHEN Not scoring first 18-12-0-0 Trailing after 1st 5-8-0-0 Trailing after 2nd 4-14-0-0 At home 19-9-0-1 March 4-3-0-0 Friday 9-5-2-0 |
MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active players Goals 21 (B. McMann) Assists 43 (L. Shaw) Points 61 (L. Shaw) PPG 10 (B. McMann, L. Shaw) Shots 171 (L. Shaw) +/- +19 (R. Zohorna) PIMS 103 (N. Hoefenmayer) |
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH GREG MOORE
On today’s game:
We didn’t defend. We certainly weren’t skating. We didn’t have a good start. There was a lot of compounded elements in the game today where we didn’t work as hard as we needed to, we weren’t executing our plan. We just seemed like we were slow to get to everything that we were trying to do. The frustration crept in and we had a hard time getting momentum on special teams as well.
LOGAN SHAW
On today’s game:
I don’t think we had the effort that we needed. We know they’re a good team. They’re the best penalty kill in the league, and we can’t build momentum on our power play. We weren’t connected tonight as a team, and it showed. It wasn’t a good performance by us.
On what needs to change for tomorrow’s game against Charlotte:
Right now, it’s just work ethic. It’s what we lacked tonight. We know what our structure is, we know what our plan is and in order to execute that, you’ve got to work to the highest pace that you can. If you don’t, that’s what you get. If you try to do your own thing and get away from the game plan, it’s not going to work. The league is too good, the players are too good. It showed tonight. We were just disconnected, and we didn’t work for 60 minutes.
UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time
March 18 vs. Charlotte – 4:00 p.m.
March 22 vs. Milwaukee – 7:00 p.m.
March 24 at Cleveland – 7:00 p.m.
March 25 vs. Cleveland – 4:00 p.m.
March 29 vs. Hershey – 11:00 a.m.
Pre Game:
The Toronto Marlies host the Charlotte Checkers in a St. Patrick’s Day battle at Scotiabank Arena in the first half of a back-to-back. This is the third of four matchups between the two clubs this season.
The two teams last met on February 11th when Toronto won 4-3. Currently, the series is split with both teams taking home a win.
Toronto heads into Friday’s game with a 6-3 win over the Rochester Americans on Sunday, improving to a 40-16-2-1 record. While Charlotte is coming off a 4-3 loss to the Bridgeport Islanders on Saturday, falling to 33-20-3-3 on the season.
Players to look out for on the Marlies side include Bobby McMann who has 13 goals in his last 10 games, and Logan Shaw has 61 points (18G, 43A) in 56 games this season. On the Checkers side, Riley Nash leads the way with 48 points (21G, 27A).
The Marlies can clinch a playoff spot with just one point in Friday’s game.
Puck drop is at 1:30pm on the Toronto Maple Leafs app and AHLTV.