Checkers News

Despite mounting a two-goal rally to take a late lead in the third period, the Checkers surrendered a last-minute goal and ultimately fell to San Antonio 3-2 in the eighth round of the shootout.

After the teams traded chances through a scoreless first period, the Rampage found the back of the net midway through the second frame, as a puck thrown on net found its way through traffic and careened off a skate. The Checkers still couldn’t solve San Antonio goalie Dan Ellis and the Rampage carried the one-goal lead into the final period.

Midway through the third, Charlotte answered. Brock McGinn came in hard on the forecheck, lighting up a San Antonio player to keep the puck in the zone and then sliding a pass to fellow rookie Trevor Carrick, who buried a wrister from the slot and knotted the game at one apiece for his first professional goal.

Both teams continued to press and create chances, but it was the Checkers’ ailing power play unit that finally came through, as Chad LaRose fired a shot that snuck its way through Ellis and over the goal line to give LaRose his second goal in as many games and Charlotte the lead with under three minutes to play.

The Rampage were relentless on their attack however, and Ryan Martindale beat Drew MacIntyre with just 18 seconds left in regulation to force the game into overtime.

After a fruitless overtime that saw both teams come close and the Checkers successfully kill a rare overtime penalty, the game headed to a shootout, the second one Charlotte has this season. Both goalies were up to the task, stonewalling all shooters up until the eighth round, when defenseman Alex Petrovic lit the lamp and clinched the two points for San Antonio.

Skating in their third game in four nights, the Checkers again turned in a strong performance, with a less desirable result. “I thought it was a great game,” said head coach Jeff Daniels. “It’s a tough way to lose in the shootout but I really liked the way we played and I thought it was an excellent game to coach and watch. We need two points but we’ll take the point.”

The game turned for the Checkers after a big hit from Carrick sparked the two teams to come together and two fights to break out. The play seemed to ignite the team, who would quickly come out and grab the tying goal.

“Dennis Robertson gets in there and gets the meat tenderizer out on that guy’s face and I loved it,” said Kyle Hagel, no stranger to fights himself as he picked up his league-leading 11th of the season just a few feet away. “The boys were just stirring the pot a little bit and that’s our style to get us back into it and I think that that’s what got us the tie and take the lead.”

Surrendering the late goal that knotted things up was certainly a tough pill for the Checkers to swallow, but they had their chances in the extra period, even with having to kill an ill-timed penalty.

“To give one up with 17 seconds left was tough on the bench but I thought we came out in overtime with a big kill,” said Daniels.

Once the game hit the shootout, it essentially turns into a crap shoot.

“It’s just luck,” said Daniels. “The deeper you go you’re just kind of picking a guy at that point and hopefully you pick the right one.”

The team will get a well-deserved day off tomorrow before returning to the ice for a rematch with the Rampage. The Checkers will undoubtedly be looking for the same caliber performance to knock off this powerful San Antonio team that now sits two points away from the West Division lead and go into the holidays on a high note.

“I think we’re getting used to playing a lot of these low-scoring, one-goal games,” said Daniels. “The guys played real hard considering it was back-to-back and they (San Antonio) didn’t play last night. They were fresh and I thought we did a lot of good things.”

“We had a pretty slow start but we stuck with the program over the 60 minutes tonight and we fought hard and we’ve just got to bring the same work ethic and intensity (Sunday) and I think we’ll be OK,” said Carrick.

“We’ve got to take that momentum that we had in the third period and bring that right from the start,” said Hagel. “We’ve just got to try to shake it off and be better on Sunday.”

NOTES

Carrick led the Checkers with a career-high five shots on goal … San Antonio was playing for first time since a 3-0 win over Iowa on Friday. The Checkers played three games since then, including one on Thursday … Charlotte missed a chance to win consecutive games for just the second time this season (Nov. 29-30 vs. Milwaukee) … The Rampage have five straight wins against the Checkers dating back to March 23 of last season … Jared Staal extended his career-long point streak to four games (2g, 2a) with the primary helper on Carrick’s goal … Ryan Murphy extended his assist/point streak to three games (0g, 4a) … San Antonio’s three shots in second period tied the fewest the Checkers have given up in a period this season … Charlotte is 1-12-2 when trailing after two periods this season … Checkers defenseman Mike Little was playing his fourth game in four nights – two for Charlotte and two for its ECHL affiliate in Florida … Forwards Greg Nemisz and Brody Sutter and defensemen Keegan Lowe and Beau Schmitz missed the game due to injury.