Marlies Drop Friday Matchup 5-1 to Checkers

TOR 1 - CLT 5

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Toronto: B. Groulx (V. Lettieri, B. Smith)
Goaltender: A. Akhtyamov (16/20) L, V. Peksa (16/17)

Charlotte: R. Gaber (4) (B. Pinho, T. Bjornfot), R. Chorske (3) (T.Carrick, S. Vilmanis), G. Sawchyn (2) PP (J. Studnicka, T. Carrick), S. Vilmanis (3) (B. Steeves, B. Chorske), B. Chorske (4) (S. Vilmanis, M. Alscher)
Goaltender: C. Black (18/19) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Bo Groulx put the Marlies on the board at 10:11 of the first period. He has 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists) in 19 games this season.
• Vinni Lettieri recorded the primary assist on Groulx’s first period goal. He has eight points (2 goals,6 assists) in 15 games with the Marlies this season.
• Blake Smith had the secondary assist on Groulx’s first period goal. He has points (1-2-3) in three consecutive games.
• Artur Akhtyamov stopped 16 of 20 shots he faced in 31:05 of action. Vyacheslav Peksa stopped 16 of 17 shots in relief.

TEAM NOTES

• The Marlies were 0-for-1on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play. Toronto is 4-7-1-0 when not scoring on the power play and 2-6-1-1 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
•  Charlotte outshot Toronto 37-19 in all situations. Jacob Quillan led the Marlies with three shots on goal. Toronto is 5-5-0-0 when outshot by their opponent.
• The Marlies are 2-3-0-0 against Atlantic Division opponents and are 0-1-0-0 against the Checkers.

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH JOHN GRUDEN

On today’s game:
We’re on our heels. That’s a really good team. They play with a lot of pace, they got a lot of big strong guys out there. We weren’t able to match their intensity and we weren’t predictable enough early on and they set the tone from the get go. I thought the only time when we slowed them down and played well was the first 10 minutes of the second period. We’re going to have to watch that and make sure that execute to that degree and then again we can’t deviate. They’re too good of a team. They’re too structured. With some of our youth, we’re on our heels and we’re not going to do it by one guys, we’re going to have to do it collectively as a group of five. It’s not good enough. Not going to make any excuses. We’ve got to find a way to be better.