Searching for their first win of the season, the Checkers rolled over the Iowa Wild Friday night, using a big first period to propel themselves to an 8-3 victory.

Charlotte’s hottest scorer heading into the game, rookie Andrew Poturalski, opened up the scoring less than six minutes in by pouncing on a rebound in front to put his team on top. Veteran newcomer Patrick Dwyer quickly followed suit, carrying the puck from the corner with an impressive individual effort and sliding it under goalie Steve Michalek’s outstretched leg to double the lead just 15 seconds later. The scoring flurry wasn’t over, however, as Keegan Lowe launched a cannon of a shot from the point moments later for the Checkers’ third goal in a 56-second span.

That spelled the end of the night for Michalek, but his replacement, Alex Stalock, couldn’t keep the surging Checkers at bay. Streaking in off a neutral zone turnover, Poturalski knifed a backhander into the top corner for his second goal of the period and fourth in three games. The Wild would find the board shortly after thanks to a Mario Lucia shot, but Checkers captain Derek Ryan came through with a late power-play strike to push Charlotte to a substantial 5-1 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.

Score Sheet
Lucas Wallmark kept things rolling with a tap-in goal off a slick feed from Sergey Tolchinsky early on in the second and that would be more than enough. Iowa would add two more tallies over the final two periods, but Valentin Zykov’s first goal as a Checker and a late snipe from Brendan Woods would carry the visitors to an 8-3 shellacking of the Wild.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow night in a rematch as the Checkers will look to secure their first winning streak of the season and return to a .500 record.

NOTES:

Poturalski’s four points (2g, 2a) were one shy of the franchise record … Three other Checkers recorded multi-point nights: Lowe (1g, 1a), Ryan (1g, 2a) and Patrick Brown (0g, 2a) … Dwyer’s goal was his first as a Checker and first in the AHL since Dec. 6, 2009 … Wallmark’s goal stood as his first in North America as a pro .. Poturalski has goals and points in each of his last three games, Brown, Wallmark and Matt Tennyson have points in their last two