Marlies News

The Toronto Marlies defeated the Charlotte Checkers 5-2 on Saturday evening.

In the first period, it was Alex Steeves who opened the scoring just 6:25 in to the game. The Checkers responded with a goal from Michael Benning and Rasmus Asplund to give the home side a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.

In the second, the Marlies special teams took over. Max Ellis scored his third goal of the season, an even strength goal at 6:35, to tie the game at two. Then, Ryan Tverberg and Logan Shaw both added a goal on the power play to give the Marlies a 4-2 lead.

In the third period, Shaw tallied his second goal of the game as he put the puck in an empty Charlotte cage to secure the win for the visitors. Toronto's penalty kill was a perfect 6/6 in the win.

Dennis Hildeby stood tall in the Marlies crease, stopping 24 of the 26 shots he faced.

The Marlies return to action on Sunday afternoon as they close out the season series with the Checkers in Charlotte. Puck drop is at 1:00pm on AHLTV.

Game notes:

SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: A. Steeves (13) (J. Blandisi), M. Ellis (3) (G. Cruikshank, C. Gaunce), R. Tverberg (7) PP (D. Gambrell, A. Steeves), L. Shaw (11) PP (N. Abruzzese, M. Lajoie), L. Shaw (12) EN (J. Blandisi, M. Lajoie)Goaltender: D. Hildeby (24/26) W

Charlotte: M. Benning (5) (P. Giles), R. Asplund (5) (Z. Dalpe, W. Skoog) Goaltender: S. Knight (25/29) L

ON THE SCORESHEET

Alex Steeves opened the scoring at 6:25 of the first period and later added the secondary assist on Tverberg’s second period goal. He has 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) in 29 games this season.Max Ellis scored at 6:53 of the second period. He has 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) in 27 games this season.Ryan Tverberg scored on the power play at 16:02 of the second period. He has two game-winning goals this season. Tverberg has 19 points (7 goals, 12 assists) in 19 games with the Marlies.Logan Shaw scored on the power play at 17:51 of the second period and on the empty net at 16:48 of the third period. He has 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in 31 games this season.Joseph Blandisi had the lone assist on Steeves’ first period goal and the primary assist on Shaw’s third period empty net goal. He has 28 points (9 goals, 19 assists) in 33 games this season.Grant Cruikshank recorded the primary assist on Ellis’ second period goal. He has one goal and one assist through two games with the Marlies.Cameron Gaunce picked up the secondary assist on Ellis’ second period goal. He has three assists in nine games this season.Dylan Gambrell registered the primary assist on Tverberg’s second period goal. He has 19 points (6 goals, 13 assists) in 33 games this season.Nick Abruzzese had the primary assist on Shaw’s second period goal. This was his sixth power play assist this season.Max Lajoie recorded the secondary assists on Shaw’s second period and third period goal.Dennis Hildeby stopped 24 of 26 shots he faced.

‍

TEAM NOTES

The Marlies went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill and 2-for-4 on the power play. This was Toronto’s sixth multi-power play goal game this season. Toronto’s six killed penalties ties the club for a season high. Toronto is 8-4-4-1 when scoring on the power play and 8-5-0-1 when not allowing a goal on the penalty kill.Toronto had a 30-26 edge in shots in all situations. Alex Steeves led the Marlies with five shots on goal. Toronto is 10-10-4-1 when outshooting their opponent.The Marlies are 5-2-0-0 against Atlantic Division opponents and are 2-1-0-0 against the Checkers with one game remaining in the regular season. Toronto has outscored Charlotte 12-6 through three games. Joseph Blandisi leads all Marlies in points (2-3-5).Toronto has started their annual Boat Show Road Trip and is 1-1-0-0. The club will face six different clubs in seven games and return to Coca-Cola Coliseum on Feb. 9.

‍

RECORD WHEN

Scoring first 14-4-4-1

Trailing after 1st 2-6-1-0

Leading after 2nd 11-1-3-0

On the road 7-6-1-1

January 2-3-1-0

Saturday 5-3-2-0

‍

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active AHL players

Goals 15 (K. Bellows)

Assists 19 (N. Abruzzese, J. Blandisi)
Points 30 (A. Steeves)

PPG 4 (R. Tverberg)

Shots 99 (L. Shaw)

+/- +18 (J. Blandisi)

PIMS 74 (K. Clifford)

‍

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On special teams:It’s everything. Our five-on-five game is pretty good. We’ve done a lot of good things. We’re plus that department in terms of goals for and against. If we can start winning more of the special teams games, it’s just going to make us more consistent and we’re going to win more consistent. We’ve just got to keep it going and understand that that should be the format of what it’s going to take. Hopefully guys will get some confidence from that and we’ll move forward.

JOSEPH BLANDISI (2 ASSISTS)

On today’s game:I thought we played 55 minutes hard tonight. We fell asleep for five minutes there in the first period. They put two behind us but the other 55 minutes, we were strong, we were winning our battles and special teams was the difference for us tonight. Power play, two goals. Penalty kill was huge, five-on-three, couple of penalty kills in the third period and it goes a long way for our group.

ALEX STEEVES (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)

On today’s game:Resiliency, special teams, goaltending – those three big things. I look at the ebbs and flows of the game. That five-on-three kill in the third period when we made a couple of mistakes there wasn’t a ton of panic on the bench, there was really good dialogue and belief. When one of our teammates makes mistakes, it’s up to the rest of the guys to pick them up. Couple of big power play goals, PK was exceptional, and Dennis is pretty reliable back there.

UPCOMING GAMES: *All times Eastern Standard Time

January 21 at Charlotte – 1:00 p.m.

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.

‍

Game Recap