Charlotte Checkers bench
The reeling Charlotte Checkers were dealt another blow Monday night, falling to the San Antonio Rampage by a score of 5-2 to run their winless streak to six games.

The Checkers started off on the wrong foot, surrendering a power-play goal five minutes in thanks to a Dennis Everberg deflection. But the home team was able to quickly square things up, with Brock McGinn potting a power-play strike of his own less than 90 seconds later, sending the game into the first intermission tied at one.

Things fell apart for the Checkers in the middle frame, however, as the Rampage poured in three goals on seven shots, two of which came on the man advantage, to grab a commanding 4-1 lead after 40 minutes. San Antonio then went into lockdown mode, holding the Checkers at bay for most of the second before Brody Sutter redirected a point shot in front to cut the lead to two. Charlotte built some momentum off that strike, but couldn’t quite convert, and rookie phenom Mikko Rantanen iced the game with a late empty netter to cap the 5-2 win for San Antonio.

While both of their tallies came on the man advantage, the Checkers biggest deficiency was their power play. Charlotte had 11 power-play opportunities, with the 26th-ranked Rampage penalty kill thwarting nine of them. Heading into the game as the number two ranked power-play unit in the AHL, the Checkers have run hot and cold on the man advantage as of late.

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“We’re trying to still be a little bit too fancy,” said assistant coach Geordie Kinnear, who again manned the bench as Mark Morris missed the game due to illness. “But we’ll sit in the coaches’ office, talk about it and come to a conclusion. The guys on the power play have been successful all year and have the capability to get it done.”

“I feel like the biggest thing for us is trying to get pucks on net,” said Zach Boychuk, the team’s leader in power-play goals. “Hopefully we can start doing that more five-on-five as well.”

The Checkers’ other special teams unit didn’t fare much better, surrendering three power-play goals to San Antonio, two of which came in the back-breaking second.

“The disappointing part was the penalty kill where we didn’t get the job done,” said Kinnear. “It’s been good all year but we needed it to step up tonight and it didn’t.”

Stuck in their worst slump since the 2013-14 season, the Checkers were able to create more chances tonight than they had in their previous two showings, but still came up empty when it counted most.

“I feel like we played a much better game today,” said Boychuk. “We still need to find a way to score five-on-five, but we out-shot the other team and got a lot of chances. Right now we’re just running into some hot goalies and we need a little better effort from the guys.”

Both player and coach were quick to credit a patchwork back end for their play, despite the outcome.

“I thought defensively we were very good tonight,” said Kinnear.

“It’s good to see a guy like [Tyler Ganly] get called up and play well,” said Boychuk. “We’ve got a lot of injuries right now and we’re hoping for Danny Biega to come back soon, but he’s stepped in and we had a call-up from the East Coast [Sean Escobedo] come in again today and play pretty well. In the middle of the season, you never know who you’re going to have in your lineup so we’ve got to keep pushing and play well together.”

As the team continues to skid in the wrong direction, their strong leadership core becomes even more important, in terms of curbing frustration and turning things around.

“We’ve just got to stay positive,” said Kinnear. “We went on that big run for a reason and right now we’re on a bit of a streak where we’ve got to find our chemistry again and get that positive attitude back. We’ve got some good leaders in the room and it’s going to be just as easy to go on another streak on the winning side.”

The Checkers won’t have to wait long until their shot at revenge, as they take on this same Rampage team Wednesday to continue a busy four-game week. While tonight’s final score ended up lopsided, there were some flashes of what they’ll need to do to work their way back on track.

“I thought we played in their end and that’s how you have to play when you’re in a hole,” said Kinnear. “You never just jump out of a hole. You’ve got to crawl, scratch and dig a little deeper. We’re on our way out of that hole.”

NOTES

The Checkers’ six-game winless streak (0-5-1) is their longest since losing seven straight games in regulation in November of 2013 … The Checkers have just four total goals in their last four games. Tonight marked just the second time they have scored multiple goals in their last six outings … The Checkers have not scored an even-strength goal since Jan. 30 in Iowa, a span of four games … Charlotte’s 11 power-play opportunities were a season high and tied the second-most in team history. It was just the fifth time that the team has earned 10 or more opportunities in a single game … The Checkers’ three goals allowed on the man advantage tied a season high set Oct. 31 at Lake Erie … The Checkers are now 0-3-0 in February and have a combined 8-15-2 record in that month in their last three seasons … San Antonio defenseman Duncan Siemens suffered an injury in the final minutes of regulation, stayed down for several minutes and left the game on a stretcher … The Checkers are now 2-1-0 against San Antonio in the four-game season series that concludes Wednesday … With two goals tonight, San Antonio forward Mikko Rantanen now has 39 points in just 30 games this season … Defenseman Sean Escobedo, who signed a professional tryout contract earlier in the day, made his Checkers debut … Forward Justin Shugg and defensemen Danny Biega and Mike Cornell missed the game due to injury … Defenseman Ryan Murphy, who the Carolina Hurricanes reassigned to Charlotte earlier in the day, did not play.