Charlotte Checkers Bojangles' Coliseum
In front of a sell-out crowd of over 8,420 on “1950s Night,” the Checkers went toe-to-toe with the Milwaukee Admirals but couldn’t find a spark, falling 3-0 to snap their three-game winning streak.

It didn’t take long for the visitors to find themselves on the board, as Derek Army put one behind Michael Leighton in the first three minutes of play. That early offense wouldn’t be indicative of the rest of the contest, however. The two sides were nearly even in shots throughout the game, but the Admirals controlled the majority of the play and pumped in one more goal in both the second and third periods. With no luck of the offensive side of the puck, the Checkers’ rally attempt couldn’t gain any traction, and they fell victim to their third shutout of the season.

“It was not the sharpest effort,” said head coach Ulf Samuelsson. “A little surprising with this kind of fan support that we couldn’t get more generated today. It was disappointing.”

Coming off of a three-game stretch that saw them pot 13 total goals, the well ran dry for the Checkers tonight against the Admirals as they struggled to find any sort of groove in the offensive zone.

“The Admirals played well defensively,” said Samuelsson. “They were hard on pucks and they didn’t give us any room to work with. A lot of credit to them, but you’ve still got to find a way to compete a little harder in the offensive zone for puck possession. They were in and out really quick and we had no sustained time at all.”

“I don’t think we played with any urgency offensively,” said alternate captain Patrick Dwyer. “Guys were in there but weren’t in there fast enough. Our second guy was in there but he wasn’t in there fast enough. We were trying to make plays but weren’t making them fast enough. There was a matter of urgency that was missing from our game.”

The Checkers had a wrench thrown into their game plan when their lineup had to undergo some last-minute changes. Keegan Lowe took warmups but ultimately couldn’t go for the game, while Dwyer and Roland McKeown each left the game due to injury, though the former returned shortly after.

“We lose McKeown with an upper-body injury and he probably won’t be available for some period of time now. He’s been a very solid player for us,” said Samuelsson. “We lost Keegan Lowe because of the flu before the game, so maybe we’ve got something going on throughout the team because some guys looked a little fatigued.”

That shorthandedness caused the hole Charlotte fell into to be even more difficult to climb out of.

“It makes it tough, but as a player you have to be ready to go at any minute,” said Dwyer. “It could be an injury or a guy getting sick or whatever, but you have to be able to move up or down that depth chart and take it in stride and contribute to our team. Unfortunately Lowe wasn’t able to go tonight with the flu and I thought Rainer [defenseman Kevin Raine, who replaced Lowe] played pretty well, but I think from top to bottom we weren’t desperate enough and we didn’t have enough compete in our game.”

Despite handing the Admirals team a lopsided 5-1 defeat just a week ago in Milwaukee, the Checkers couldn’t pull off the feat again.

“They’ve added three good players that made a difference, so now they’re a more balanced team,” said Samuelsson. “It was definitely a better roster than last time we played them.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re still leading our division so you know they’re a good hockey club over there,” said Dwyer of the Admirals, who snapped a four-game losing streak tonight. “They had a big morale boost from getting three or four guys back from the big club and injury, so we knew they were going to come out hard and be a completely different team from a week ago. I don’t think we really responded the way we needed to.”

While there weren’t many positives in their play tonight, the team is prepared to build off this loss and come back ready for tomorrow’s rematch.

“I think you’ve got to take something from the game and there’s got to be some sort of lesson,” said Dwyer. “We’ve talked about it and it’s over with and done with. Now we move on to getting ready to play tomorrow and what we have to do to have a better all-around game.”

NOTES

The Checkers’ crowd of 8,420, which took advantage of tickets priced in throwback categories of 90 cents and $1.25 was the largest since the team moved back to Bojangles’ Coliseum last season … The team also sold 4,196 $1 hot dogs … The Checkers’ winning streak ended at three games. It was their second-longest of the season … This marked the third time Charlotte has been shut out this season and first at home … The Checkers are now 1-1-1 against Milwaukee this season … Forwards Andrew Miller and Brendan Woods missed the game to due injury, while defenseman Keegan Lowe did not play due to illness … Forwards Kyle Hagel and Mitchell Heard were healthy extras.