The Toronto Marlies defeated the Charlotte Checkers 4-1 on Sunday afternoon. The Marlies take the regular season series against the Checkers three games to one.
In the first period, both teams exchanged chances, but neither were able to find the back of the net.
In the middle frame, Alex Steeves opened the scoring for the second straight game with his 14th of the season. Just over halfway through the frame, Charlotte responded with a goal from Wilmer Skoog to tie the game at one. But, the Marlies kept pressing. Logan Shaw scored his 13th of the year at 17:29, followed by a goal from Kieffer Bellows at 19:16.
In the third, Steeves added another for the Marlies to secure the win and send the Marlies home with four points. Keith Petruzzelli recorded his fifth win of the season, stopping 20 of the 21 shots he faced.
The Marlies return to action on Wednesday when they visit the Cleveland Monsters. Puck drop is at 7:00pm on AHLTV.
Game notes:
SCORING SUMMARY
Toronto: A. Steeves (14) (W. Villeneuve, M. Ellis), L. Shaw (13) (D. Gambrell, N. Abruzzese), K. Bellows (16) (W. Villeneuve, R. Tverberg), A. Steeves (15) PP (T. Niemelä, K. Bellows)Goaltender: K Petruzzelli (20/21) W
Charlotte: W. Skoog (4) (J. Wise, M. Benning)Goaltender: S. Knight (18/22) L
ON THE SCORESHEET
Alex Steeves opened the scoring for the second consecutive game at 4:45 of the second period and later scored on the power play at 11:14 of the third period. He has 32 points (15 goals, 17 assists) in 30 games this season.Logan Shaw scored the game-winning goal at 17:29 of the second period. He leads all Marlies with three game-winning goals this season. Shaw has 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in 32 games this season.Kieffer Bellows scored at 19:16 of the second period and later added the secondary assist on Steeves’ third period goal. He has 29 points (16 goals, 13 assists) in 28 games this season.William Villeneuve recorded the primary assists on Steeves’ and Shaw’s second period goals. He has 14 points (1 goal, 13 assists) in 29 games this season.Max Ellis had the secondary assist on Steeves’ second period goal. He has 12 points (3 goals, 9 assists) in 28 games this season.Dylan Gambrell registered the primary assist on Shaw’s second period goal. He has 20 points (6 goals, 14 assists) in 34 games this season.Nick Abruzzese picked up the secondary assist on Shaw’s second period goal. He has 26 points (6 goals, 20 assists) in 35 games this season.Ryan Tverberg had the secondary assist on Bellows’ second period goal. Tverberg has 20 points (7 goals, 13 assists) in 20 games with the Marlies.Topi Niemelä recorded the primary assist on Steeves’ third period power play goal. He leads all Marlies in power play assists (9).Keith Petruzzelli stopped 20 of 21 shots he faced.
TEAM NOTES
Alex Steeves scored his 56th goal for the Toronto Marlies. He is tied for sixth all time in goals for the franchise.The Marlies went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play. The team is 11-for-45 (24.4) on the power play in its’ last 10 games. Toronto is 9-4-4-1 when scoring on the power play and 9-5-0-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.Toronto had a 22-21 edge in shots in all situations. Robert Mastrosimone, Tommy Miller, Topi Niemelä and Alex Steeves led the Marlies with three shots on goal. Toronto is 11-10-4-1 when outshooting their opponent.The Marlies are 6-2-0-0 against Atlantic Division opponents and finish their regular season series 3-1-0-0 against the Checkers. Toronto outscored Charlotte 16-7 through four games. Joseph Blandisi (2-3-5), Logan Shaw (3-2-5) and Alex Steeves (4-1-5) led all Marlies in points.Toronto is 2-1-0-0 on their annual Boat Show Road Trip. The club will face six different clubs in seven games and return to Coca-Cola Coliseum on Feb. 9.
RECORD WHEN
Scoring first 15-4-4-1
Tied after 1st 3-5-2-1
Leading after 2nd 12-1-3-0
On the road 8-6-1-1
January 3-3-1-0
Sunday 5-2-2-0
MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players
Goals 16 (K. Bellows)
Assists 20 (N. Abruzzese)
Points 32 (A. Steeves)
PPG 4 (R. Tverberg)
Shots 101 (L. Shaw)
+/- +19 (J. Blandisi)
PIMS 74 (K. Clifford)
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN
On today’s game:It’s hard to win two games back-to-back, especially on the road. They pushed. They’re a good, competitive team that is a tough opponent and for some reason the energy got a little higher. It got competitive out there and a little chippy but that put us back into the fight and we made the plays at the right time. We locked it down at the end.
On the series against Charlotte:The first two games of the road trip with the way it’s been going a lot rides on this trip as a group. To see them play the way they did, it’s very rewarding. We were talking about it as a staff, our guys worked hard. They have all year but we seemed to find ways to lose and now we’re finding ways to win and it’s only two games but hopefully it’s a start in the right direction. We got great special teams which was awesome and then our goaltending was great too. Our five-on-five play has been pretty good. Hopefully that continues and we’ll carry it over to our next game.
On Keith Petruzzelli:I thought he looked really calm. He made some really big, key saves when we needed them as a group. You’re going to get pushes from the other team and when they did, he looked awfully confident in between the pipes. It was good to see. I’m glad our guys played the way they did to make sure that he got the victory.
UPCOMING GAMES: *All times Eastern Standard Time
January 24 at Cleveland – 7:00 p.m.
January 27 at Lehigh Valley – 7:05 p.m.
January 28 at Hershey – 5:00 p.m.
January 31 at WB/Scranton – 7:05 p.m.
February 2 at Utica – 7:00 p.m.
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