CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Josh Leivo showed no signs of rust in his return to the Toronto Marlies lineup.
The 21-year-old forward opened the scoring for Toronto and assisted on the eventual winner as the Marlies toppled the host Charlotte Checkers 4-1 on Thursday in American Hockey League action.
Leivo was playing his first game since Dec. 12 after an upper-body injury kept him sidelined for the past 13 contests.
Connor Brown put Toronto (17-15-6) ahead for good when he scored his team-leading 10th goal of the season at 18:24 of the second period. Carter Ashton and Viktor Loov added goals in the third to secure the victory.
Zach Boychuk put the Checkers (14-20-5) on the board at 13:26 of the second.
Antoine Bibeau made 28 saves for the Marlies as Charlotte's Drew MacIntyre stopped 21-of-24 shots in defeat.
