Checkers News

The Checkers’ offensive struggles continued in their rematch with the Grand Rapids Griffins, as the fell by a score of 4-1 Saturday night at Time Warner Cable Arena.

The team came out of the gates strong, gaining their first lead of the season just over six minutes into the first. Phil Di Giuseppe collected the puck in the high slot and fired a slap shot that Jared Staal deflected over the glove of goalie Tom McCollum. The tally was Charlotte’s first first-period goal since its season opener in Milwaukee and gave the Checkers the lead heading into the second frame.

The offense dried up following that, however, and the Griffins added four unanswered strikes to cruise to their third straight victory.

For the second night in a row, the Checkers were plagued by penalty trouble and the Griffins made them pay, notching three power-play goals on six opportunities.

Brendan Woods, who tallied one helper, admitted that those mistakes were costly, especially against a team as potent as Grand Rapids.

“They’re a good team and they’re good on the power play,” said Woods. “We knew that coming in to this weekend and we kind of shot ourselves in the foot by taking too many dumb penalties – me included.”

As lopsided as the score ended, the Checkers were once again within striking distance heading into the final frame. While the end result was not what he wanted, head coach Jeff Daniels was pleased with the team’s performance for most of the game, before penalties derailed that.

“It was probably our best game so far this season, probably the first 45 minutes and then in the third we kind of got into some penalty trouble again, it killed the momentum and they scored some goals,” said Daniels. “The first 40-45 minutes was the way we’ve got to play.”

Daniels pointed to the Staal goal as the way this squad is going to have to play to put points on the board.

“That’s the way we’re built,” said Daniels. “We’re not an overly skilled team so it’s those dirty goals and those garbage goals that come from a point shot at the net and bodies at the net, whether it’s a deflection or a rebound. They all count the same, and that’s the way we’ve got to play.”

The team will regroup this week before they head to Iowa for a two-game series against the Wild starting Friday. Dropping two games at home is obviously a frustrating situation for the team, but when asked how they will go about bouncing back for next weekend, captain Michal Jordan, Woods and Daniels all were prepared to put this weekend behind them and get to work.

“We just have to work hard during the practices,” said Jordan.

“Just come ready to work and get better on Monday,” said Woods. “We’ve got practice at 10:30 and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”

“Come to work on Monday and let’s get better,” said Daniels.

NOTES

Staal's goal was his second of the season, which ties him for the team lead, ties his total from all of last season and puts him halfway to his single-season career high ... The game featured a season-high four Checkers fights - bouts by Trevor Carrick, Kyle Hagel, Ben Holmstrom and Brock McGinn ... Goalie Drew MacIntyre became the first Checkers goalie to start four times in the season's first five games ... The Checkers' penalty kill entered the game with a 91.3 percent success rate (21-for-23) ... The Checkers were out-shot by 10 or more for the fourth conesecutive game ... Justin Shugg missed his second consecutive game due to injury, while forward Mike Aviani and defenseman Dennis Robertson were healthy extras.