Sam Carrick and John-Michael Liles lift Marlies over Americans 3-2

TORONTO - Marlies coach Steve Spott called forward Sam Carrick the most pleasant surprise on his hockey club this season.

With centre Greg McKegg missing his second straight game with an upper body injury, Carrick was promoted to Toronto's top line, and he had a goal and an assist in the Marlies 3-1 win on Friday night in Hamilton.

On Saturday, Carrick added a short-handed marker and set up John-Michael Liles' second period goal as the Marlies edged the Rochester Americans 3-2.

"Right now, Sam Carrick is that guy that's really taken advantage of his ice time," said Spott. "I give him credit. It's going to be hard to move him down the line-up once we do get people back."

Tyler Biggs had the other goal for the Marlies (12-7-1), who beat the Americans for the first time in three tries this season. Toronto extends its win streak to three games and has won six of its last seven.

Jamie Tardiff opened the scoring for Rochester (9-8-4) at 7:16 of the first period. Matt MacKenzie had the other goal for the Americans, who have now won just twice in their last seven games.

"You got to give them a little bit of credit. When they got that second goal, they started to sniff some life," said Spott. "They were pretty quiet for 40 (minutes). They came at us pretty good once they got that second goal, but we knew they would."

Carrick tied it 1-1, short-handed, at 18:32 of the opening frame when he capitalized off a wide Nick Crawford point shot. Carrick broke in alone on Americans' starter Matt Hackett and beat him with a backhand shot for his third of the season.

"They missed the net, went by their defenceman, I was there all alone pretty much," said Carrick of the play. "I kind of had an idea of what move I was going to do, just because it's worked for me before. Luckily enough it's worked out."

Carrick had an excellent chance for his second of the night at 5:52 of the second period with a similar short-handed breakaway, but was turned aside by the right pad of Hackett.

"I figured I might as well try the same move," said Carrick. "It worked in the first so I tried to do a little bit more of a fake going to my forehand. I had a lot of back pressure coming in so I had to do it quickly and I just couldn't get it up enough."

Liles made it 2-1 at 14:19 of the second period on a Marlies' power play, finishing a backdoor feed from Carrick for his third of the season.

Two minutes later, Biggs gave Toronto a two-goal cushion, putting home the rebound off a Liles point shot for his second of the season.

Hackett made 26 saves in the loss. Marlies starter Drew MacIntyre turned aside 25 shots in the win.

The Marlies open December on the road in Lake Erie on Thursday.

Notes: Rochester signed defenceman Nick Tuzzolino to a professional tryout on Friday. In a corresponding move, the Americans assigned forward Colin Jacobs to the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL.