Checkers News

The Checkers ran into the hottest team in the AHL tonight and nearly upended them, but the Griffins held on for a 3-2 victory to extend their point streak to 16 games.

Charlotte came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, turning in one of its best periods in some time. The home team spent the majority of the period buzzing all around the Griffins zone, creating several chances in front of Tom McCollum. Rookie Brock McGinn put the Checkers on the board first with a five-hole snipe off of a beautiful saucer pass courtesy of Ben Holmstrom. The Checkers held that lead until the final two minutes of the frame, when Scott Czarnowczan evened things up with a blast from the point.

The second period saw things even out a bit and the two squads struggled to gain momentum, combining for just 13 shots. Andreas Athanasiou snatched the lead for the Griffins on an incredible move, toe-dragging around a defender before firing the puck top shelf as he fell to the ground. The strike gave Grand Rapids a one-goal advantage heading into the final frame.

The Griffins cushioned their lead quickly in the third, with Nick Jensen firing a puck that somehow found its way through a mass of bodies out front and into the net. The two teams again locked in a struggle to break through, with just 13 total shots between them, but the Checkers could not find a way to put it past McCollum. Just over halfway through the period they finally cut into the lead as Zach Boychuk leveled a Grand Rapids player behind their net, recovered the puck, and found a wide-open Brendan Woods in front for the one-timer. The tally pulled the Checkers within one with just over seven minutes to go in regulation. But despite a flurry of chances, including several with an extra attacker, the Checkers could not find the tying goal, and the Griffins escaped with their streak still intact.

The Checkers initial burst seemed to have the Griffins on their heels, with the home team coming out with excellent puck movement. But as they game progressed, that level faded a bit, allowing the visitors to pull themselves back in.

“We came out strong,” said Boychuk, whose goal tonight extended his point streak to five games. “I think we were prepared. We knew they’re a pretty hot team right now and we had to bring our best. We showed it in spurts in different areas throughout the game, especially at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game, but you need to do that for the full 60.”

With just one day to prepare for tonight’s contest, head coach Jeff Daniels had a very distinct game plan on how to keep the Griffins in check. In the end, poor execution on some of those parts led to the end result.

“We talked about not turning the puck over and I thought we did that a little too much,” said Daniels. “The second goal was a perfect example of turning the puck over. They’re a very good transition team with a lot of skill. They’re No. 1 in the league for a reason, and you just can’t make mistakes coming through the neutral zone.”

“They’re definitely a disciplined team and a hard team to play against so we had to keep it simple and limit our turnovers,” said Boychuk. “I think we did that at times but at other times we kind of beat ourselves. That’s why they ended up scoring three on us.”

Being down one goal in the third period hasn’t been a great situation for the Checkers this season, as they have struggled to find that crucial goal in crunch time. They have had problems even with the extra attacker, failing to maintain that pressure and often surrendering the back-breaking empty netter. But things were different down the stretch of this game. The Checkers created several chances late, including multiple pucks finding themselves all around the goal before being swatted away or smothered. The desperation kicked in and helped give them an opportunity to send the game to overtime, but the Checkers ended up falling just short.

“We were just trying to get the puck to the net,” said Boychuk. “We knew there wasn’t much time left, so you get the goalie out, add another guy and try and out-work them. We had some good chances and some pucks just laying on the goal line, and if you get a bounce here and there or a guy goes to the net a little harder it might go in for us. Hopefully next time it does.”

“We played a little more desperate, and as a result we had a little more chances,” said Daniels. Brock had a great chance late and that goal by Woodsy got us a little closer, but at the end of the day we just couldn¹t find the third one.”

The Checkers will have tomorrow to recuperate and prepare for Thursday’s rematch against this same red-hot Griffins team. While tonight’s result was obviously not what they wanted, there was plenty to build upon.

“We’ve just got to work hard going into tomorrow’s practice,” said Boychuk. “We’ve got to get back to what we were doing right against Norfolk (a 4-2 win on Sunday), and that’s not pretty. We’re not the most skilled team so we have to out-work the other team and tonight they out-worked us and their skill took over. We weren’t able to capitalize.”

“We’ve got to play the same way no matter who we’re playing against,” said Daniels. “As I said last time we talked it’s about being a pro and we’ve got to show up and be pros out there.”

NOTES

Grand Rapids extended its point streak to 16 games (13-0-3), the longest in the AHL since Norfolk won 28 in a row in 2011-12 … The Checkers fell to 1-3-1 vs. Grand Rapids this season. Griffins goalie Tom McCollum is 3-0-0 with a 1.66 goals-against average and .929 save percentage in the season series … Boychuk has 10 points (6g, 4a) in his last 11 games, including an active five-game point streak (3g, 3a) … Charlotte has a power-play goal in six of its last seven games (7 for 30: 23.3 percent) ... The Checkers fell to 3-25-2 when trailing after two periods … Dennis Robertson extended his point streak to a career-best three games (1g, 2a) … Mike Cornell fought for the fourth time in eight games as a Checker … Forwards Gabriel Desjardins, Chad LaRose and Greg Nemisz and defenseman Keegan Lowe missed the game due to injury … Forward Carter Sandlak was a healthy extra.