The Checkers limped to the end of their tough road trip by suffering a shutout loss to the Hershey Bears Sunday night.

Despite outshooting their opponent and controlling much of the play, Charlotte’s highly touted offensive attack was silenced by the stingy Bears. The Checkers failed to convert on any of their six man advantages, going scoreless on the power play for the second straight game against Hershey, and netminder Vitek Vanecek turned aside all 29 pucks fired on him.

On the other side, the Bears claimed themselves an early lead thanks to a defensive miscue that ended up in the back of the Charlotte net, then doubled that advantage later in the frame off a slick move in tight by Tyler Graovac.

Hershey would cling to that lead through a stormy middle frame that saw the visitors dominate the shot battle 13-3, then added a power-play tally midway through the third to squash a rally attempt and send the Checkers packing.

NOTES

Charlotte finished this road trip with a 1-4-0 record and scored two or fewer goals in each loss … Tonight was the third time that the Checkers have been shut out this season, with all three instances coming on the road … The Checkers were held without a power-play goal for the fourth time during this five-game road trip. Prior to the trip they had gone scoreless on the power play nine times in 31 games … Andrew Miller and Nicolas Roy saw their five and two game point streaks snapped, respectively … Sergey Tolchinsky and Patrick Brown missed the game due to injury … Julien Gauthier and Brenden Kichton served as healthy extras

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The Checkers will now return to Bojangles’ Coliseum for an extended home stand starting Friday against the Toronto Marlies.