Game Preview: Checkers at Toronto (Feb. 22, 2015)

The Checkers look to keep their best stretch of the season going as they begin a Canadian four-game road trip in Toronto this afternoon.

Winners of three straight, the Checkers would match their longest winning streak since March of last season with another victory against the Marlies, one of a handful of teams they need to pass to make their way up torward playoff position. After Toronto took the first five all-time meetings between the two clubs, including the first this season, Charlotte rebounded to win by a 4-1 score in the most recent game on Jan. 16.

Today’s game will be the Checkers’ first since defeating Iowa on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Marlies are concluding a three-in-three set with travel involved. The teams play a rematch Wednesday morning in Toronto.

Charlotte

The Checkers have seen very different results since the All-Star break concluded on Jan. 30. After starting with a season-high four consecutive regulation losses, they have earned wins in four of their last five.

Though their current pace is their best to this point in the campaign, they’ll have to maintain it in order to have a chance of overcoming a 14-point deficit in the playoff race with 24 games to play.

“You ask any coach – you win a game or you score a goal and all of the sudden you’re feeling better about yourself,” said coach Jeff Daniels. “You go in the locker room and the guys are looser and joking around a little more, whereas when you’re losing it gets pretty quiet in there.

“The main thing about being a pro is being even keel – you can’t get too high or too low. Right now we’ve won a few games but we’ve got to realize there’s a lot of work to do.”

An offensive breakout led by Brock McGinn (four goals and an assist in three games) helped the Checkers sweep their home stand last week. Prior to scoring three or more goals in each contest, the team had gone six consecutive games without accomplishing that feat.

Heading into that homestand, McGinn, a former second-round draft choice who is coming off a 43-goal junior hockey season, had not found the back of the net for 29 consecutive games.

“He didn’t change his game,” said Daniels of McGinn, who was still generating plenty of scoring chances during his drought. “He kept playing the same way and kept going to the net. Now he’s getting rewarded.

“I’m happy for the kid because I know how hard he works to be a player and wants to get better. I’m happy to see it.”

With John Muse starting two of the last three games, Drew MacIntyre is likely to get another crack at his former squad today as the team seems to enter a more even rotation in net. MacIntyre, who starred for the Marlies in each of the last two seasons, stopped 20 of 23 shots in the Checkers’ earlier head-to-head loss this season.

The Checkers could be short on defense depending on the health of Rasmus Rissanen, who missed Thursday’s game and Friday’s practice with an injury of the day-to-day variety. Michal Jordan, who returned to Charlotte to play Thursday’s game, has since rejoined the NHL’s Hurricanes, giving the Checkers just six defensemen on their roster.  

Toronto

The Marlies will be at a clear rest disadvantage for today’s game, having played Friday night in Utica (a 5-2 loss) and Saturday afternoon at home against Texas (a 3-1 loss) since the Checkers last hit the ice against Iowa.

Since the Checkers halted their 10-game point streak in the last meeting, the Marlies are 4-5-3, dropping them back to .500 and putting them just five points ahead of the Checkers – a gap that could close to just one this week should the visitors get their most favorable results this week.

Another team that has struggled to score this season (the Checkers and their three most recent opponents – Toronto, Iowa and Norfolk – are the bottom four in terms of goals per game in the AHL), the Marlies received a recent boost through the parent Maple Leafs’ trade acquisition of rookie Brendan Leipsic from Nashville.

A third-round pick in 2012, Leipsic totaled five assists in three games against the Checkers while playing for Milwaukee earlier this season. He has one goal and one assist in two games since joining the Marlies and ranks as the team’s second highest scorer behind AHL All-Star Connor Brown, another first-year pro who has 40 points on the season and netted a team-high two goals against the Checkers in January.

Another notable name on the Toronto attack is center Sam Carrick, brother of Checkers defenseman Trevor Carrick. The two have yet to face each other as professionals as Sam was on NHL recall with the Maple Leafs when the Marlies made their visit to Charlotte.

Goaltenders Antoine Bibeau and Christopher Gibson have split the duties for Toronto this season, with Gibson getting yesterday’s start. Bibeau, who owns the slightly inferior statistics between the two (2.71 goals-against average, .913 save percentage) has allowed three or more goals in each of his last five starts, including four outings in which he allowed four. He does own the Marlies’ victory against the Checkers this season, having stopped 28 of 29 on Jan. 15.

Checkers Notes

Against Toronto

Tonight is the third of the four-game season series against Charlotte and Toronto that concludes with a rematch on Wednesday morning. The teams split two earlier games at Time Warner Cable Arena on Jan. 15 and 16, with each team winning by a 4-1 score. Charlotte's victory in the most recent meeting halted the Marlies' point streak at 10 games (7-0-3). Charlotte has an all-time record of 1-5-0 against Toronto, including losses in their only two games played at Ricoh Coliseum last season.

Zach Boychuk led all Checkers skaters with four points (2g, 2a) in the previous two games against the Marlies, with Chad LaRose (1g, 1a), Justin Shugg (1g, 1a) and Danny Biega (2a) also chipping in multi-point efforts. For the Marlies, Josh Levio led the way with three points (1g, 2a), with AHL All-Star Connor Brown scoring two of the team's five goals.

In goal, former Marlie Drew MacIntyre took the Checkers' loss on Jan. 15, stopping 20 of 23 shots. John Muse picked up the victory one night later by saving 36 of 37. Toronto rookie Antoine Bibeau saved 28 of 29 to earn the Marlies' victory, while Christopher Gibson stopped 18 of 21 in the next night's losing effort.

MacIntyre played 69 games for the Marlies over the last two seasons and owns three of their five all-time victories over Charlotte. The Carrick brothers (Checkers defenseman Trevor and Toronto forward Sam) have yet to face each other as professionals as Sam was with the parent Toronto Maple Leafs at the time of the team's previous meetings this season.

Winning Streak

The Checkers' current three-game win streak marks their longest of the season and longest since winning four in a row from March 25-30 of last season. Prior to their current streak, they had only won conecutive games once this season, a home sweep of Milwaukee on Nov. 29-30.

Since coming out of the All-Star break with a season-high four consecutive regulation losses from Jan. 30-31, the Checkers have won four of their last five games since Feb. 10.

Home and Road

By sweeping a three-game home stand last week, the Checkers improved their record at Time Warner Cable Arena to 14-11-2 this season. Meanwhile, they are 6-15-4 on the road, with their 16 points earned away from home marking the fewest of any AHL team.

Brock's Breakout

After going 29 games without a goal (Nov. 30) and 20 games without a point (Dec. 29), Checkers rookie forward Brock McGinn has found the back of the net four times in his last three games (4g, 1a). His goal streak is one shy of tying one set by Justin Shugg (Nov. 14-21: 4g: 1a) for the longest by a Checkers player this season.

McGinn has scored at least one goal in seven games this season, with the Checkers posting a 6-1-0 record in those contests.

McGinn, who scored 43 goals in his final junior hockey campaign with Guelph last season, has recorded two multi-goal games this season (Nov. 21 and Feb. 18). He is tied for third on the team with nine goals and ranks fourth with 18 points in 50 games.

Muse Heating Up

Checkers goaltender John Muse has won each of his last three games, equaling his win total from his first 16 appearances of the season. He is the franchise's all-time wins leader with 50, including a single-season team record of 27 set last season.

In four February appearances, Muse is 3-0-0 with a 1.70 goals-against average and .956 save percentage. During that time, he has lowered his GAA for the season from 2.87 to 2.65 and raised his SV% from .910 to .920.

LaRose Takes Over

During a current stretch that has seen him score 19 points (12g, 7a) in his last 25 games, Chad LaRose has taken sole possession of both the team's scoring lead with 30 points (16g, 14a). In addition to being the team's overall points leader, he also leads the team in goals, power-play goals (six), power-play points (eight), shorthanded points (four - t-1st AHL) and shots on goal (142).

LaRose's six-game point streak from Jan. 15-30 marked the Checkers' longest of the season, eclipsing his own previous five-game run and another by Ryan Murphy, both of which occurred in December. It also tied the longest of his professional career set during his previous AHL season (4g, 7a for Lowell between Nov. 18-26, 2005).

LaRose, a 32-year-old veteran of 508 NHL games with Carolina, is playing in the AHL for the first time since 2005-06 after taking last season away from hockey. He now has 114 points (57g, 57a) in 178 career AHL games with Lowell and Charlotte.

Offensive Breakout

After scoring just eight total goals in a six-game stretch from Jan. 30-Feb. 12, the Checkers have found the back of the net 11 times in their last three outings (excluding a goal awarded for Monday's shootout win over Norfolk). Their current stretch marks the second time they have scored three or more goals in three consecutive games and first since Nov. 15-21 (13 goals).

The Checkers now rank 29th in the league with an average of 2.21 goals per game.

We Meet Again

This week's series against Toronto marks the 21st time the Checkers have faced the same opponent in two consecutive games this season. They are a combined 5-11-4 in the first halves of those series, including wins in each of their last two openers, and are 11-8-1 in the second.

In those two-game series, the Checkers have won both games twice (against Milwaukee on Nov. 29 and 30 and agianst Iowa on Feb. 18 and 19) and have suffered four sweeps (vs. Grand Rapids on Oct. 17-18, at San Antonio on Nov. 14-15, at Oklahoma City on Nov. 21-22 and vs. Chicago on Feb. 6-7).

MacIntyre's Workload

Checkers goalie Drew MacIntyre, who has started seven of the Checkers' last 10 games, ranks sixth in the AHL in minutes played (1,996) and is tied for second in saves (975). With 35 games played, he would have to appear in 13 of the Checkers' last 24 to tie the single-season club record set by Justin Pogge in the inaugural 2010-11 campaign.

MacIntyre, a 31-year-old veteran now playing his 12th professional season with his eighth AHL club, ranks 10th on the league's all-time wins list with 206 and is just 26 wins away from tying Frederic Cassivi for fifth. He has a 206-134-25 record, 2.45 goals-against average, .936 save percentage and 16 shutouts in 388 career AHL games dating back to the 2004-05 season.

Welcome Back Alex

Since returning from the ECHL's Florida Everblades on Jan. 4, forward Alex Aleardi has posted 11 points (6g, 5a) in 15 games, including five in his last five (3g, 2a). Even though Aleardi did not dress for four games since that recall, he ranks second on the Checkers in scoring behind Chad LaRose (19 games) during that time.

Aleardi, an undrafted forward who the Checkers signed to an AHL contract during the offseason, has 34 points (16g, 18a) in 72 career AHL contests with Springfield and Charlotte. He scored 19 points (8g, 11a) in 16 ECHL games with the Everblades this season.

Quick Hits

• Chad LaRose is tied for the league lead in shorthanded assists (3) and points (4).
• The Checkers are tied for sixth in the league with seven shorthanded goals. They ranked last in the AHL with three last season.
• Charlotte is the only AHL team that has yet to record a shutout.

Streaks

• Brock McGinn has goals and points in each of his last three games (Feb. 16-19: 4g, 1a)
• Zach Boychuk has points in each of his last three games (Feb. 16-19: 2g, 1a)
• John Muse has won each of his last three games (Feb. 10-19:
• Chad LaRose has points in each of his last two games (Feb. 18-19: 2g, 1a)
• Brendan Woods has points in each of his last two games (Feb. 18-19: 1g, 1a)

Injuries

• Rasmus Rissanen - missed one game starting 2/19
• Gabriel Desjardins - missed 19 games starting 1/4
• Greg Nemisz - missed 31 games starting 12/8 (out for season)

Milestones

• Ben Holmstrom is one shy of 300 AHL games and four shy of 450 AHL penalty minutes
• Jared Staal is one shy of 250 pro games, three shy of 50 pro points and two shy of 100 pro penalty minutes
• John Muse is one shy of 100 AHL games
• Justin Shugg is two shy of 100 pro penalty minutes
• Zach Boychuk is five shy of 200 AHL penalty minutes
• John Muse recorded his 50th AHL victory on Feb. 16
• Zach Boychuk recorded his 150th AHL assist on Feb. 18

Transactions

Incoming

• None

Outgoing

• Feb. 21 - (D) Michal Jordan recalled to Carolina (NHL) from Charlotte