Game Preview: Checkers at Rochester (March 29, 2018)

The Checkers are back out on the road for a pair of contests in their second-to-last trip of the regular season.

1. BACK ON THE ROAD

After sweeping the Rocket last weekend, the Checkers are heading back on the road to visit the Rochester Americans and Syracuse Crunch. Despite faring worse overall on the road this season, boasting a 17-15-2 record compared to a 22-11-1 mark at Bojangles’ Coliseum, the Checkers are winners of four straight away from home, one shy of their longest such streak this season.

“It’s weird, I don’t know if we’ve had a struggle on the road,” said head coach Mike Vellucci. “We’ve played some good games that we maybe didn’t win but it seems like we’re always shorthanded when we’re on the road, missing players. We started off really hot early in the year when we had all of our players, we won four or five in a row on that long one. Then we ran into some injuries and whatnot. We’re not a bad road team. We just have to make sure we’re competitive right from first whistle.”

Although the Checkers will be on the road for their third and fourth consecutive games this weekend, they do have the benefit of spending the week in between those road contests back in the Queen City.

“I’d much rather be here with guys living in their own places and sleeping in their own bed and working in our own facilities,” said Vellucci.

2. ON THE SLATE

One of the wrinkles added to the Checkers’ schedule this season as a part of their move to the Eastern Conference is the fact that they’ve faced different opponents on several nights this season, including this weekend’s trip.

While playing in two different cities over the span of 24 hours may seem tough, the Checkers look at it as a positive.

“It’s hard, especially in this league, to play the same team twice in a row and beat them twice,” said Vellucci. “So this is a good opportunity for us. And the two places aren’t that far away from each other.”

In Rochester and Syracuse the Checkers will see a pair of similarly talented teams, both of which are playoff bound.

“They’re both a bit older and more experienced,” said Vellucci. “They both have been playing well as of late, especially Rochester. They seem to have turned their season around from the start of the year to now. They have high offense and they’re a very fast team that’s very good.”

3. DIGGING DEEP

The Checkers’ offense continues to roll as of late, and it’s the top talent that’s leading the way. Over the last seven contests, the trio of Aleksi Saarela, Greg McKegg and Lucas Wallmark have racked up seven, 10 and 13 points, respectively.

“Kegger is a good straight-line guy,” said Vellucci. “He’s got a lot of speed and makes nice little plays, and Sal’s the shooter. You saw those two goals [last weekend], they were in the back of the net before the goalie even knew it. All three complement each other. They’re going to hunt pucks down. Wally makes those dishes and the rest of the guys can put it in.”

While the top line has been dominating, the Checkers are looking for an uptick in contributions from some of their other skilled skaters. Nicolas Roy has gone scoreless in his last six games, while fellow rookie Julien Gauthier has one goal in his last five, as does the recently returned Warren Foegele. When the Checkers get all their capable forwards rolling offensively, they will be a tough team to match offensively.

“To me, our strength is that we have depth up front,” said Vellucci. “We have four lines that can play in any situation. It’s good to get anybody scoring. We want to make sure that we spread it around. When the top line is going that’s great, but sometimes it’s the second or third line or fourth line, they start scoring. So we’re good.”

4. STORTINI STEPS IN

Last weekend in Laval featured one of the Checkers’ most ravaged lineups, with several key players missing for a variety of reasons. It did, however, get the team a chance to re-insert Zack Stortini into the mix. Prior to Saturday’s rematch the veteran forward had only dressed for two other games during the 2018 calendar year, and despite it only being his 18th game of the season, Stortini stepped right in and gave his club a boost en route to a critical victory.

“His character and his leadership is awesome,” said Vellucci. “I’ve talked about putting him on the bench as an assistant coach because he’s so good on the bench with his teammates. He’ll get some more games here before the season is over.”

5. NED STAYS WINNING

Alex Nedeljkovic’s record-breaking season continues to roll on. The second-year pro is 7-1-0 in his last eight appearances to bring his win total to a league-leading 31.

“Just keep moving the puck,” said Vellucci of the key to his netminder continued success. “He does a great job playing the puck and that keeps us out of our own end a lot. And he’s been making the big saves when we need them. The last game we gave up a 2-on-0 and he made the save, a couple breakways and he made the saves. Just keep doing what he’s doing, and that’s staying focused and playing the best he can.”

6. WELCOME BACK WALLMARK

His returning to the Checkers from his most recent NHL stint, Lucas Wallmark has been lights out. The Swede recorded five points over the weekend to keep up his breakneck pace and now has 15 points in his last eight contests. Wallmark now has 51 points in 42 games this season, already surpassing his rookie totals from a year ago in 25 fewer games. In fact, the 22-year-old leads all AHL skaters with at least 20 games played in points-per-game by averaging 1.21 each contest, a number that would shatter the franchsie record of 1.07 set by Zach Boychuk in 2013-14.

7. OVERTIME HEROES

By defeating the Rocket on Friday, the Checkers improved to a perfect 3-0 in overtime games this season. Charlotte has only had six games go beyond 60 minutes this season, tied for the fewest in the league, but is the only team without an overtime loss.

The Checkers’ top two scorers have been the overtime heroes thus far this season, with Valentin Zykov notching two overtime winners and Lucas Wallmark picking up Friday’s.

8. SAARELA STRIKES AGAIN

While Warren Foegele has taken a lot of the highlights, he’s not the only rookie on the roster making a splash offensively. With three goals in Laval over the weekend, Aleksi Saarela brought his total to 23 on the season, moving up to third among league rookies and within three of Foegele’s league lead.

Saarela’s 23 goals are tied with Zac Dalpe for the third-most by a rookie in franchise history and stand as the most by any Finnish skater in the AHL this season.

9. GET THE APP

The Checkers app got a fresh new set of paint during the offseason but functions just the same. Follow along with scoring updates as well as play the Top Line interactive game.

You will also be able to listen to the radio broadcast via the app or this link. Jason Shaya’s pregame show starts 15 minutes prior to puck drop, tune in and tweet Jason to let him know you’re listening.