Game Preview: Checkers at Oklahoma City (Oct. 5, 2013)

The Checkers would love nothing more than to head into what will already be their longest layoff of the entire season with a perfect 2-0-0 record in Oklahoma City.

They have a chance to just that tonight thanks to having kicked off their 2013-14 campaign with a 3-2 win over the same Barons on Friday. It marked the second consecutive season the team has won its opening game after starting their AHL history with a record of 0-1-1. They will have played at least their first two games on the road in all four seasons and have never started with two wins.

After tonight's game, it will be 14 days – the longest break between games in team history - until the Checkers next compete against the Iowa Wild for their home opener at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Charlotte

As will have to be the case throughout a season that has seen some significant changes to the team's roster, the Checkers got contributions for players old and new in Friday's win.

Chris Terry, the team's all-time scoring leader who has led the team in each of the last two seasons, got things going by scoring on the first shot of the season just 49 seconds into the game. Defenseman Mark Flood, a veteran playing in his first game with the team, followed that up with another to make it 2-0, with center Brody Sutter, a candidate for a breakout season after finding his offense in last year's playoffs, broke a 2-2 deadlock with the winning goal late in the third period.

Goalie Justin Peters, a two-time AHL All-Star playing his first game in the league since leaving for the NHL on March 4 of last season, made 32 saves to pick up his second opening-night win in as many seasons. Defenseman Matt Corrente picked up an assist and six penalty minutes in his team debut, while third-year pro Rasmus Rissanen had a key assist on Sutter's winner and Justin Shugg, another player who will be counted upon to provide offense this season, also had one helper.

Aside from the likely change of using Mike Murphy in goal for the second of back-to-back games, the team's success and the apparent absence of injury may not prompt any other lineup changes, even though there are a handful of options available. The team had four extra players with it on opening night, a group made up of forwards Kyle Bonis, Stefan Della Rovere and Brendan Woods and defenseman Beau Schmitz.

Forward Manny Malhotra, a veteran of over 800 NHL games who just signed a pro tryout contract with the Checkers on Thursday, may sit if he and the team elect to continue to ease the 33-year-old back into the lineup after he missed training camp. In his first AHL game since the 2000-01 season on Friday, he played on the fourth line between Matt Marquardt and Adam Brace.

Oklahoma City

After a rough start to Friday's game in which new goalie Richard Bachman gave up a pair of stoppable goals to Terry and Flood in the first 12 minutes, the Barons bounced back to give the Checkers all they could handle for much of the remainder.

Charlotte dictated play throughout the first period of Friday's game, leading the shots battle 15-6 after the initial frame. However, the Barons had completed the comeback by the first half of period three, having out-shot the Checkers by an even-more lopsided 18-5 mark in the second. They then appeared to wear down late, committing several defensive-zone turnovers prior to Sutter's winning goal.

Bachman, who played half of last season in the NHL with Dallas and is thought to be the team's clear No. 1 option after Yann Danis departed in the offseason, could again get the start tonight ahead of Olivier Roy. If so, he will be one of a handful of players with major-league experience looking to get the team its first win, joining Friday goal scorers Ryan Jones and Philip Larsen.

Jones, a 29-year-old who spent the entirety of the last three seasons in the NHL with Edmonton, also had a second-period goal disallowed as he interfered with Peters. Larsen, a 23-year-old defenseman who finished a very nice passing move on a Barons power play to tie the game at 2-2, split last season between the top league in Finland (during the NHL's lockout) and the Dallas Stars.

A potential change to today's roster could be the addition of agitating forward Ben Eager, who did not play Friday. Center Ryan Hamilton was on the team's opening-night roster but departed for Edmonton after the Oilers summoned him on the afternoon of Friday's game. Top prospect Oscar Klefbom, a first-round draft pick in 2011, also missed the game.

Checkers Notes

Starting Strong

After losing each of its first two season openers – a regulation loss in Connecticut in 2010 and an overtime loss at Norfolk in 2011 – Charlotte has now won its first game in each of the past two seasons. It has never begun a season with a perfect 2-0-0 record, having started each campaign by playing its first two games on the road.

Sutter Finds Scoring

After scoring six points (4g, 2a) in his first 27 AHL games dating back to the end of the 2011-12 season, Checkers center Brody Sutter now has six (3g, 3a) in his last six, all of which have come against the Barons. That streak dates back to Game 1 of the 2013 playoffs, when he recorded his first multi-goal game as a professional, including the overtime winner. Three of his seven career AHL goals, including playoffs, were game winners.

Welcome to the Club

With his first-period goal on Friday, defenseman Mark Flood became the first defenseman to ever score a goal in his Checkers debut. Flood, who scored a career-high 40 points (11g, 29a) in 60 games over his last full AHL season with Manitoba in 2010-11, led all Checkers defensemen and tied for first on the team in scoring during the preseason with three points (3a) in two games. Friday was Flood's first AHL game since Nov. 1, 2011, as he spent the remainder of that season in the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets and all of last season in the KHL with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Been a Long Time

Checkers center Manny Malhotra, a 33-year-old veteran of 864 NHL games with the New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks, on Friday played his first AHL game since suiting up for Hartford in the 2000-01 season. Malhotra, the seventh overall pick in the 1998 NHL draft who has 17 points (6g, 11a) in 41 career AHL games, signed a 25-game professional tryout contract with the Checkers on Thursday.

Original Checkers

Five players who were in the lineup for the Checkers' first-ever AHL game at Connecticut on Oct. 9, 2010, also played in the team's first game of the 2013-14 season on Friday. They are: forwards Nicolas Blanchard, Zach Boychuk, Jared Staal and Chris Terry and defenseman Michal Jordan. A seventh, defenseman Rasmus Rissanen, made his AHL debut after concluding his junior career later in that inaugural season, making him the sixth player to have played at least one game for the team in each of its four seasons in the league. Goalie Mike Murphy, who backed up on Friday, will join that group with his next game played.

New Faces

Six players - forwards Adam Brace, Manny Malhotra, Aaron Palushaj and defensemen Matt Corrente, Mark Flood and Keegan Lowe - made their Checkers debuts on Friday. It was also the AHL debut for Brace and Lowe and the professional debut for Lowe. Two more players on the roster - forwards Kyle Bonis and Stefan Della Rovere - await their Checkers debuts after sitting out Friday's game.

The Checkers used four rookies on Friday - Brace, Lowe, forward Victor Rask and defenseman Danny Biega. Rask and Biega both played a handful of games for the team last season. Bonis and forward Brendan Woods also qualify as rookies.

Against the Barons

The Checkers have an all-time record of 10-5-2 against Oklahoma City dating back to the 2011-12 season when Charlotte joined the Western Conference. The teams met in the first round of last year's playoffs, with the Barons winning two straight games to defeat the Checkers in five games. Including last season's playoffs, seven of the last 14 meetings were decided by three or more goals.

Enemy Ties

Checkers forward Matt Marquardt played 63 games for Oklahoma City in the 2010-11 season, recording 12 points (5g, 7a) in 63 games. The fathers of Checkers defenseman Keegan Lowe (Kevin Lowe – president of hockey operations) and forward Brody Sutter (Duane Sutter – pro scout) work for the Edmonton Oilers, NHL parent club of the Barons.

Barons winger Matthew Ford, who had an assist in his Oklahoma City debut on Friday, played 31 games for the ECHL Checkers from 2008-10, scoring 40 points (21g, 19a) in 31 games. He was teammates with the Checkers' Sean Dolan for one season at the University of Wisconsin.

Long Break

Following tonight's game, the Checkers do not play again for 14 days - a break that ends with the team's home opener against the Iowa Wild at Time Warner Cable Arena on Oct. 19. It is the longest time between games this season and in the team's AHL history, besting a 10-day holiday hiatus from Dec. 20-30, 2011.