The second-year American Hockey League player leads the Falcons with 15 goals.
Forward Jonathan Audy-Marchessault leads the Springfield Falcons with 15 goals.
SPRINGFIELD – His teammates call him “JAM.”
Hey, that’s a lot easier than calling him by his given name – Jonathan Audy-Marchessault.
Whatever he’s called, this 5-foot-9, 180-pound left winger from the heart of hockey country – Quebec City – has been providing offensive punch for the first-place Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League’s Northeast Division.
He once again will be skating on a productive line with center Nick Drazenovic and red-hot wingmate Cam Atkinson when the Birds play a rare Wednesday road game, hosted by the Portland Pirates.
Audy-Marchessault leads his team in assists with 19 and ranks second to Atkinson in points with 27. Atkinson has 29 after another strong weekend which stretched his points streak to eight games. He leads the Falcons with 15 goals, including five game-winners.
One glance at those stats would leave an impression that JAM and Cam are both doing well. From Audy-Marchessault’s perspective, though, it’s all relative. He’s so used to being a productive scorer, that right now he considers himself to be in a slump.
“I’ve had problems scoring goals lately, but you have to stay with it. If I’m not getting goals, I can help to create scoring chances for our line,” he said.
A problem scoring? Maybe, but this guy’s record says that he will put up his numbers over the long haul of any season. For instance, in his last two seasons of junior hockey with his hometown Quebec Remparts, he scored 70 goals – 40 in 2010-11 when he led his team with 95 points.
As a rookie with the Connecticut Whale last season, he made the big step from junior into the AHL with 24 goals.
He joined the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, Springfield’s NHL parent, when he signed a three-year contract in July.
If Audy-Marchessault feels that he could be doing better offensively, that’s actually the way the entire Springfield team feels about itself.
“The fact is, we’ve been losing our scoring touch lately, but that’s a reality of hockey. It happens,” coach Brad Larsen said.
“The only way to combat that is to stress to each player the need for responsibility to their job, so we can play the kind of team defense that wins the 3-2 and 2-1 games. We need to limit the other team’s shots. We were giving up too many, but last weekend, we showed a lot of improvement there, and it turned out pretty well after a bad start.”
The Falcons lost Friday at Providence, but salvaged one point Saturday in an overtime loss to St. John’s at home, then came on strong to win a shootout at Manchester. That was Springfield’s first extra-time victory in six tries.
“That was the elephant in the room for us, but we got past it,” Larsen said.
The first-year coach likes the progress being shown by some of his younger players. JAM is one of them – he will turn 22 on Dec. 27.
“I really like him. He’s a great kid who sniffs out pucks and takes good shots,” Larsen said. “Our job as a staff is to help with the growth of the rest of his game. Young players need to learn how to play away from the puck, because there’s a lot of time in the game when you’re not carrying it.”
Audy-Marchessault knows what the coach means.
“You have to learn how to play in all zones, especially the defensive zone. You have to be well-positioned at all times. I feel that I’m improving with that,” he said.
The Falcons stand 15-5-2-3, with a league-leading road record of 9-2-1-0.
“I have been lucky to be part of good teams in junior and in this league,” Audy-Marchessault said. “The best feeling in hockey is winning.”
ICE CHIPS: On Monday night, defenseman Tim Erixon and center Ryan Johansen stopped by Shriners Hospital to deliver game tickets on behalf of Falcons management for distribution to patients ... Johansen, a No. 1 draft pick in 2010, ranks third on the team in goals with nine. His late tally Saturday night forced overtime ... Goaltender Curtis McElhinney tops the AHL with 14 victories and five shutouts ... Defenseman David Savard, who had a stellar game in Manchester, leads the Falcons backline with 17 assists ... The Portland visit will mark Springfield’s sixth road game out of its last seven.