Unlike last night, it was the Barracuda who came out swinging in the first period, opening the scoring just 48 seconds in and then doubling their lead with another strike later in the frame.
The Checkers battled back in the second, with Patrick Brown intercepting an offensive-zone pass and sniping it off the crossbar and in to pull the home team back within one. But Charlotte couldn’t muster anything else, and a Nikolay Goldobin redirection midway through the third proved to be the dagger as the Barracuda skated away with a two-goal victory.
“I just thought we had a really lethargic start,” said head coach Mark Morris. “We fumbled a couple of pucks there in the early going that really got us off on the wrong foot. I think the game was pretty much over before it even started for us because we didn’t prepare well enough. I’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys up somehow.”
“Last night we started hot and scored three goals in the first period,” said Brown. “We’re a skilled team and it’s really easy to play with a lead, but being down two goals early took the wind out of our sails. We had a good push back in the second period but we couldn’t pull through.”
The Checkers were able to fight back a bit in the middle frame and mount some pressure, but they couldn’t quite bear down and convert their chances.
“Last night we started hot and scored three goals in the first period,” said Brown, Charlotte’s lone goal scorer. “We’re a skilled team and it’s really easy to play with a lead, but being down two goals early took the wind out of our sails. We had a good push back in the second period but we couldn’t pull through.”
Despite spending most of the season thus far near the top of the league in terms of shots on goal per game, the Checkers have now registered just 19 and 20 shots in their last two games, respectively.
“I think it comes down to being harder on pucks in the offensive zone,” said Brown. “There were a couple too many dumps that we didn’t get back where we’re usually pretty good at chipping it in, getting the puck back and getting to the net.”
The team’s offensive attack struggled as a whole for stretches throughout the game, with Charlotte scrambling and failing to connect passes.
“Our puck movement was slow,” said Morris. “We got to playing more of an east-west game than a north-south game, and as soon as we decided to get the puck up quick and attack with speed, we created more. I thought that in the second period we were able to get a little bit closer, but most of the night we were chasing it.”
The other part of the Checkers’ struggle to produce was the fact that they spent significant time on the penalty kill, as they found themselves on the wrong end of a tightly-called game by the referees. While they were able to hold the visitors scoreless on the man advantage, those seven times shorthanded hampered their ability to create chances of their own.
“It’s tough to win a game when you’re killing that many penalties,” said Brown.
“We didn’t have many things go our way, that’s for darn sure, but you’ve got to be smarter,” said Morris. “Some of the penalties we took were ones that you just can’t. We’ve got to make sure that we’re playing a disciplined game and also being smart.”
The Checkers will have a quick break for Thanksgiving before getting right back to it on Saturday against the Iowa Wild.
“Enjoy Thanksgiving,” said Morris of his message to the team. “Come back refreshed and refocused and make sure we learn from our shortcomings.”
“Just don’t get too down on ourselves and enjoy Thanksgiving,” said Brown. “There are a lot of things in this world to be thankful for. We’ll get back to business (for practice) on Friday.”