Charlotte Checkers Check-In (February 15)
Photo: stanza.co
Good morning Checkers fans! It’s Friday and once again time to check in on our favorite hockey team. The Checkers began the first leg of a two week road trip last weekend in Hershey taking on the Bears, before finishing the road trip this weekend against three different teams. Unfortunately, the Checkers couldn’t get a win last weekend in Hershey, falling twice to the Bears. It continues the mid-season skid the Checkers find themselves in. After getting off to the hottest start in the AHL, they have since cooled off, with a record of 2-4-4 since January 19th. While we hope they can break the slump soon, they still lead the league in points with 71 on the season (the next best team has 63).
The Checkers happened to run into the Bears at the wrong time, with the Bears winning 12 of their last 13 games. They are red hot right now, and a team that nobody wants to face. Even though Charlotte couldn’t escape town with a win, they put up some good battles with them. The first of two defensive games, the Checkers were close to a win in regulation on Saturday night, but the Bears snuck a shot past goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic with less than two minutes to play. No team could capitalize in the overtime period, so it went to a rare shootout. After both goalies stopped the other team’s first four shots, it was the Bears who sent the fifth one home, giving them the shootout win. That was a tough one to swallow for Nedeljkovic, as he has been excellent this season. Jake Bean and Patrick Brown both had goals for Charlotte.
The revenge game on Sunday was another night of struggles for both offenses. Hershey got on the board first with a shot from Jayson Megna getting past Nedeljkovic. After Nicolas Roy answered for Charlotte in the 2nd, the Bears delivered late in the same period with a 5 on 3 power play goal. You must give Bears’ goaltender Ilya Samsonov credit for a well-played game, with 29 saves and limiting the Checkers to just one goal. While you have to be satisfied with the defensive effort of the Checkers, we can only hope the offense steps up soon. Six goals in the last eight games are not numbers that we are used to seeing from the team this season.
It will be a busy weekend for the Checkers with games tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday. Not only do they play three games in three days, but each game is in a different location. The Checkers will be in Springfield tonight taking on the Thunderbirds, before traveling to Providence tomorrow to play the Bruins. The roadtrip will conclude Sunday in Bridgeport where they will meet up with the Sound Tigers. While not ideal scheduling, it will be a great opportunity to increase their Atlantic Division lead since all three teams are from the division. It would be nice to see the Checkers get back on track this weekend and come back to Charlotte with at least four more points. They will get the middle of the week off before meeting up with Lehigh Valley back on home ice next Friday. If you are in town, make sure to come out and support your first place Charlotte Checkers next Friday and Saturday. You can get your tickets HERE. Go Checkers!
Garett