JOHNSTOWN, PA—The Charlotte Checkers ended their four-game northern road trip with a win as they defeated the Johnstown Chiefs, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon. With the win the Checkers end up 2-2-0 on the trip and jump Florida to overtake second place in the South Division.
Charlotte has now defeated Johnstown in four straight tries this season – two on the road and two at home.
Andrew Carroll scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season while David Marshall notched the game-winner, giving him three goals on the four-game swing. Michel Leveille chipped in with two assists, bumping him to 10th in ECHL scoring while Ryan Munce stopped 28 of 30 shots for his ninth win of the year.
Munce gave the Checkers something to get excited about early on when he made a brilliant stacked-pad save on Brian Kaufman.
Charlotte seemed to feed off the save as they went on the attack and eventually opened the scoring. On the power play, Leveille and Aaron Slattengren played keep-away and eventually ended the tic-tac-toe play with a beautiful pass to Carroll who tucked it home for his fourth goal in four games against the Chiefs.
The Checkers outshot Johnstown 13-6 in the first period but could only muster the one goal.
Johnstown would tie it up just over five minutes into the second period when Sean Berkstresser broke in on a shorthanded breakaway and stuffed home his own rebound.
The Chiefs then took the lead 25 seconds later. Kaufman fed a pass to Shields who faked forehand and beat Munce with a backhand.
The lead wouldn’t last long, however, as Charlotte tied the game 40 seconds later on a shorthand breakaway of its own. Checkers leading scorer Tyler Doig blocked a shot along the boards and broke in alone on Chiefs goaltender John Murray. Doig deked right and fired a shot off the blocker-side post and in.
The Checkers did not stop there and jumped ahead just over five minutes later. Leveille fed Ethan Graham who penetrated the zone and dished a pass over to Marshall. Marshall then unleashed a one-time shot from the blueline under the crossbar and in for the one-goal lead.
Charlotte and Johnstown traded scoring chances in the third but neither team could solve their respective opponent’s goaltender.
With less than two minutes left, Doig was assessed a holding penalty and the Chiefs went to work on the power play, however Ryan Munce was there to turn away the remaining shots and preserve the victory for the Checkers.
Charlotte (24-15-5) will host two important games with potential playoff implications on Thursday, Feb. 4 and Friday, Feb 5 against the Florida Everblades. Ticket information can be obtained by calling 704-342-4-ICE or visiting www.gocheckers.com.
Notes: Charlotte is 13-3-1 in its last 17 home games…The Checkers are 7-1-0 against East Division opponents this season…Andrew Carroll has 10 goals and six assists in his last 13 games and his five game-winning goals are the second highest total in the entire ECHL. Carroll ranks third among rookies and sixth overall in the ECHL with 21 goals…David Marshall has three goals in his last four games…Tyler Doig ranks fourth in ECHL scoring with 52 points (13g, 39a) and is the only player in the top 100 scorers with over 100 penalty minutes…Julien Brouillette has eight points (4g, 4a) in his last nine games and ranks seventh among all ECHL defensemen with 26 points (10g, 16a)…T.J. Reynolds leads the ECHL with 199 penalty minutes and is fifth in overall plus-minus with a +16 rating…Julien Brouillette, Derek Couture, Kenny Roche and Kevin Schaeffer are with Hartford (AHL) while Matt Ford and Randy Rowe are with Lake Erie (AHL)…Trevor Glass, Chris Snavely and Chris Chappell are on the 21-day injured reserve.
Charlotte Checkers 3 At Johnstown Chiefs 2 - Status: Final
Jan 31, 2010 - Cambria County War Memorial Arena
Charlotte 1 2 0 - 3
Johnstown 0 2 0 - 2
1st Period-1, Charlotte, Carroll 21 (Slattengren, Leveille), 16:50 (pp). Penalties-Chabot Chr (fighting - major), 7:17; Ralph Jhn (fighting - major), 7:17; Slattengren Chr (tripping), 7:43; Reynolds Chr (delay of game), 11:02; Schulz Jhn (holding), 13:21; Shields Jhn (closing hand on puck), 16:32; Myers Jhn (interference), 18:38; Leveille Chr (interference on the goalkeeper), 18:43.
2nd Period-2, Johnstown, Berkstresser 12 (Myers), 5:33 (sh). 3, Johnstown, Shields 18 (Kaufman, Fitzpatrick), 5:58. 4, Charlotte, Doig 13 6:38 (sh). 5, Charlotte, Marshall 11 (Graham, Leveille), 11:57. Penalties-Ralph Jhn (tripping), 3:37; Reynolds Chr (roughing), 5:58; Shields Jhn (interference), 8:04; Gendur Jhn (high-sticking), 13:17.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Burki Chr (unsportsmanlike conduct, misconduct, game misconduct - abuse of officials), 5:46; Fitzpatrick Jhn (slashing ), 14:33; Myers Jhn (hooking), 16:34; Doig Chr (holding), 18:12.
Shots on Goal-Charlotte 13-11-12-36. Johnstown 6-12-12-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Charlotte 1 of 8; Johnstown 0 of 6.
Goalies-Charlotte, Munce 8-9-1-0 (30 shots-28 saves). Johnstown, Murray 3-11-2-0 (36 shots-33 saves).
A-2,010
Referees-Keith Kaval (20).
Linesmen-Ray King (39), Zach Roberts (77).
