The Checkers couldn’t keep their winning ways going against the top team in the Western Conference Saturday night as they stumbled to 3-1 loss against the Ontario Reign.
After a scoreless first, the Reign pounced on the banged-up Checkers with two goals in the second half of the middle frame that would end up being the difference. Ryan Murphy pulled the Checkers back in early in the third with a power-play blast, but it wasn’t enough as the Reign added one more to clinch their 3-1 victory, snapping the Checkers’ two-game winning streak.
The game had a decidedly physical edge to it, with the teams combining for 66 penalty minutes, 48 of which came in the first. That doesn’t necessarily play into the Checkers’ identity, but the team held their own for stretches of the game.
“That’s the way they play and we knew that coming in,” said head coach Mark Morris. “They’re a big, physical team and they’re going to go to any extent to try and get under your skin and match you blow for blow. I thought our guys in the first period were up to the task with them after that. Second period, I thought that we backed off and they came on.”
After an evenly-battled first, things came apart for the Checkers in the second. They were outshot 20-3 and the Reign dominated control of the puck. Part of that can be attributed to a severely depleted lineup for Charlotte, who lost two of their top scorers in Phil Di Giuseppe and Brock McGinn to callups and lost Brendan Woods in the first period to injury. The Reign jumped on an inexperienced Checkers roster and didn’t relent.
“It’s a lot for the guys that are still depth guys on your team,” said Morris. “You’ve got to ask a lot of them because they’re not that far along in their development where they can handle a lot of that ice time. When they’re playing against top players and big bodies it wears on you, and they found that out tonight.”
The Reign dominated on the other end of the ice as well, holding the Checkers to just 19 shots all night. Led by veteran Peter Budaj, who has emerged as one of the top performing goalies this season, Ontario stifled the Checkers, who couldn’t manage to find any spark even after Murphy’s power-play strike.
“You’ve got to take away his vision,” said Morris of Budaj. “We didn’t do a real good job of that. They won the physical battle in front of their net so we didn’t take away his eyes. Consequently, any shots we got, there was no follow-up and that’s the difference between a veteran team that’s got a lot of size and one that’s trying to find its way.”
“It’s like anything when you run into hot goalies,” said Bowman. “You’ve just got to keep throwing pucks at him. We’ve got to find a way to get a few more shots on net.”
“I don’t think we played enough in their zone tonight and with that said, that’s a team effort,” said Murphy, who now has four points in three games this season for Charlotte. “We’ve got to get pucks behind their D. We can’t be turning it over at the red line.”
The Checkers will again face the Reign tomorrow evening looking to break through against the formidable opponent. In a game that will more than likely feature the same physical nature as tonight, the key for the home team will be breaking through a stingy Ontario team.
“We definitely had some good shifts and hemmed them in there a couple of times, and obviously the fights and the guys sticking up for each other was unbelievable and contagious,” said Murphy. “Hopefully tomorrow we can go into the game and stay away from their physical game and use our speed to get around them and create some offense.”
“I thought our compete level was pretty good,” said Bowman. “We can’t get out-shot that bad again, and I’m sure that’s what we’ll take away from it. We’ve got to find a way to reverse that and put ourselves in a good spot for tomorrow night.”