Game Preview: Checkers at Rochester (Oct. 19, 2017)

The Checkers are back on the road and squaring off with the Rochester Americans for the first time in franchise history. Here are 10 things to know heading into tonight’s tilt.

1. HOT START

The Checkers have come out of the gates firing on all cylinders this season, starting the campaign off with a 3-1-0 record. With a regulation win tonight over the Americans, Charlotte would clinch the best five-game start in franchise history by taking eight of a possible 10 points.

On an individual level, Andrew Miller and Lucas Wallmark have both recorded at least a point in every game this season, making them the fifth and sixth players in franchise history to kick off a season with at least a four-game point streak. The franchise record sits at nine games, set by Chris Terry in 2013-14.

2. SCOUTING THE AMERKS

Heading into Friday’s contest Rochester, who the Checkers have never played in their seven seasons as an AHL franchise, holds a 2-1-0 record this season, sweeping the defending conference champion Syracuse Crunch to open the season before dropping their most recent contest against to the Utica Comets.

“Rochester plays very aggressive, kind of like Bridgeport, so we have to be ready for that,” said head coach Mike Vellucci. “I talked to the guys about making sure that we’re ready for their aggressive plan. We’re going to have to respond with our quick puck movement and by moving our feet.”

3. STINGY DEFENSE

Aside from the physical presence that Vellucci pointed out, one of the Americans’ biggest assets is their defensive play. Rochester has been extremely stingy thus far this season, allowing no more than two goals in any of their three contests. That lockdown defense puts them at the top of the league in terms of goals-allowed per game.

The flip side of that is the fact that Rochester has had a tough time scoring goals of their own this season. The Americans have recorded just six goals through their three games, and their most recent outing saw them get blanked. UMass-Lowell product C.J. Smith has impressed early on, leading the club with three points in as many games, while the Americans possess several dangerous forwards like Kyle Criscuolo, Steve Moses and Nick Baptiste.

4. BETWEEN THE PIPES

The Checkers have spent the first four games of the 2017-18 alternating goaltenders between second-year-pro Alex Nedeljkovic and veteran Jeremy Smith. With the looming three-in-three, one of the two will pick up and extra start, though who that is remains to be seen. Regardless, the coaching staff appears to have Friday’s starter pegged.

“I think we’ll probably start with Ned on Friday and go with Smitty on Saturday,” said Vellucci. “Then decide after that who plays the Sunday game.”

Nedeljkovic has picked up consecutive wins to begin his 2017-18 campaign, including a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Bridgeport last weekend. A win tonight would be the second time in the young netminder’s career that he notched three consecutive wins, a career high.

In the other crease, Rochester has deployed the duo of Linus Ullmark and Adam Wilcox this season. The former has appeared in two games, splitting the decisions while making 56 saves across both contests, while the latter stopped 24 of 26 shots in his lone game this season and picked up a win.

Facing a tandem of tough goalies, the Checkers will have to dig deep to keep their offensive roll going.

“I don’t know if we tell them anything specific in terms of scoring, just play the game the right way and compete,” said Vellucci. “You do those things and you’ll score goals. We have the talent, we just need to make sure we’re competing on every shift and getting in front of the net and getting those ugly goals.”

5. THREE'S COMPANY

This weekend marks the first three games in three nights scenario for the Checkers this season, of which they have four. Charlotte is 52-35-12 all-time in three-in-threes and 38-27-10 during the road portion of that slate.

Additionally, the Checkers are 19-10-4 in the first leg of three-in-threes, the best winning percentage of any of the three contests.

Last season the Checkers went 2-1-0 in their lone three-in-three, winning the first two games before dropping the finale.

Given the grueling nature of three-in-threes, the coaching staff has their team prepared to pull off this weekend.

“It’s good that we have four lines so we can try to roll all four lines as much as possible so we don’t run out of gas on Sunday,” said Vellucci. “That’s going to be the key. We’ve had a solid week of practice and we’ve been smart with it. Today we had a more physical practice, the last couple of days have been more skill and skating and stickhandling. As the week goes on we’ll get a little more physical and get ready for the weekend.”

6. POWERING UP

Through the first four games of the season, the Checkers have notched five power-play goals, including at least one in each contest. The team’s percentage ranks 12th overall in the league, partly due to the number of power-play opportunities they’ve been afforded (22, more than any team with a higher percentage).

“We managed to get three goals in those couple games at home so that was good,” said Vellucci. “It’s just a matter of getting familiar with each other on the power play. There’s a lot of new systems that we’re using and new guys. I like the movement. We’ve gotten our chances. When you’re not getting chances, that’s when I’m worried. But we’re getting a lot of chances on it, now it’s just a matter of bearing down on it and making sure we get to the front of the net and get those deflections here and there. The last goal we scored, Schilkey had a deflection. We just need to keep getting traffic and deflections.”

7. INJURY BUG

Two skaters – Julien Gauthier and Aleksi Saarela – were knocked out of Wednesday’s practice with injury and both will be forced to miss this weekend’s games.

“Saarela and Gauthier won’t go on the trip, they’re both injured,” said Vellucci. “We’ll see what happens after the weekend on whether they can play. We’ll go with our 13 forwards and seven D.”

Since the Checkers have been carrying such a high quantity of skaters on their roster thus far, they’ll be fine for the upcoming games with the pair in terms of finding bodies to slide into the lineup. In fact, two of the skaters who had been healthy scratches for the first three games impressed when inserted against Bridgeport. Add to that Mike Ferrantino, who has yet to make his AHL debut after earning a PTO out of training camp, and Charlotte has no shortage of talent up front.

“They’ve been great,” said Vellucci of his depth forwards. “Stortini was in last week and he played really well. Schilkey got in and he scored. We’re very confident with all the guys that we have.”

8. OFF THE WALLMARK

Fresh off of leading the Checkers in goals as a rookie last season, Lucas Wallmark has roared out of the gates with a team-best eight points in four games, ranking him second in the AHL in scoring. The Swede is coming off of a win against Bridgeport that saw him notch a trio of helpers, matching a career-high.

“It’s his vision on the ice,” said Vellucci of what has been driving Wallmark’s scoring surge. “He’s had some great looks, made some great passes to his linemates. His hockey sense is off the charts. He makes the right decisions with the puck and that’s the key. He’s not going to turn it over, he’s going to make the right play at the right time. When you do that, points will always come.”

9. STRONG FINISHERS

The Checkers have made a habit of coming from behind through their first four games this season, surrendering the first goal in each contest. Charlotte’s three goals in first periods this season is its lowest of any frame, and the first period is the only one in which the team has a negative goal differential.

Meanwhile, the Checkers have scored seven goals in third periods this season, the third-highest single-period total in the AHL thus far.

10. 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 in order to win exclusive prizes.

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.