Picking up their struggles from the night before, the Checkers came out of the gate with just four shots on goal in the first period. The Monsters were able to take advantage and give themselves a lead by finishing off a slick 3-on-1 to head into the first up 1-0.
The Monsters were able to tack on two more to build a three-goal lead early in the third as the Checkers tried mightily to find any spark. It was Sergey Tolchinsky who finally got the home team on the board in the final five minutes of play, knifing his way through on the power play and backhanding one in, but it was too little, too late. Lake Erie would quickly add a full-ice empty netter to put the game away, securing their 4-1 victory.
“I felt, especially early, that we were pressing and trying to make the cute play instead of getting pucks to the net and bodies to the net,” said assistant coach Geordie Kinnear, who took over the bench as head coach Mark Morris missed the game due to illness. “We overpassed and then we were chasing it the other way with odd-man rushes. You’ve got to take what’s given and the worst thing you can do is overplay it.”
The Checkers’ lone goal came on the power play, snapping a three-game stretch without one, but they were unable to capitalize on their other three chances, including one immediately following Tolchinksy’s strike. For being one of the top-ranked units in the league, Charlotte’s power play has been lackluster as of late, compounding the team’s overall struggles offensively.
“The power play is a big one because when we score on the power play it gets us going a little bit and creates more momentum,” said Kinnear. “We’re not scoring five-on-five, so you’ve got to simplify and get pucks and bodies to the net.”
“Right now our power play seems to be a little bit dry,” said Hensick. “Unfortunately for us we haven’t done a lot of scoring at five-on-five this year. We’ve got to find ways to create offense.”
Luckily for the Checkers, they have a strong leadership core and a lot of past success this season to draw upon to find a way out of this hole.
“We’ve got a good group in there and we want to keep everyone tight together,” said T.J. Hensick. “You’ve got to find ways to win hockey games. That’s your job, and right now we’re not doing it.
“We can look back and see goals that we scored during the stretch where we had (12) games with a point, we had some positives there, but right now we’re not doing what we were doing during that stretch,” said Hensick. “But we know we’re a good team and we know we can get back at it.”
The Checkers will have to pick up and move on quickly, as they welcome the San Antonio Rampage to town on Monday to kick off a four-game week. That quick turn-around can be spun into a positive, though. “Luckily for us we’ve got a game Monday night and we don’t have to dwell on it for a week,” said Hensick. “We can bounce back Monday but it’s frustrating for sure.”
“It’s one game at a time,” said Kinnear. “We’ll analyze this one on video and I’ll talk to Mark when he gets back and kind of move forward. Dig in, raise the battle level even more, get a little more hungry and a little more determined. In these times you’ve got to dig in and take responsibility for the losses. Everyone’s got to get better and bring it the next game.”