Game Preview: Checkers at Utica (Oct. 12, 2018)

The Checkers are looking to keep their winning ways rolling through the weekend with back-to-back matchups against the Utica Comets and Syracuse Crunch. Here are eight things to know before tonight’s puck drop.

1. HOT START

With a sweep of the Americans last weekend, the Checkers have started the season with consecutive wins for the fourth time in franchise history and the second year in a row.

“We play 14 of our first 17 on the road so we needed to make sure we get off to a good start and fortunately we have,” said head coach Mike Vellucci. “We played really well in the first game, I think we relaxed a bit in the second but still got the win.”

The Checkers are one of three teams to start the season a perfect 2-0-0 on the road and have posted the third-best goal differential heading into the weekend.

“I feel very confident with this team,” said Vellucci. “We’re one of the youngest teams in the league again, but we’re big, fast and skilled. We just have to put the work ethic along with the skill.”

As Vellucci has hammered home time and time again, however, a good start means nothing if you don’t follow it up.

”It starts with practice,” he said after Wednesday’s skate. “I didn’t like practice yesterday and I let them know. We had a much better practice today so I just need to keep reminding them that every day is a new day, every shift is a new shift and you need to be consistent because only consistent guys play in the NHL.”

2. KNOW YOUR ENEMIES

This weekend pits the Checkers against a pair of North Division foes in the Utica Comets and Syracuse Crunch.

“They’re two very good teams,” said Vellucci. “I know both coaches and they both are very competitive and have their teams coming out playing very hard-nosed hockey.”

The Comets and Checkers met four times last season with Charlotte earning a victory in three of the matchups. The Checkers’ offense thrived against the Comets last season, scoring five goals in three of the four meetings and outscoring the Comets by at least three in each of their wins.

Utica started the season 1-1-0 but have gotten a significant offensive boost from the duo of second-year pro Zack MacEwen (1g, 3a) and AHL All-Star Reid Boucher (3g, 0a). Former Checker Brendan Woods has also been in the lineup for the Comets’ first two contests and has logged a staggering 29 penalty minutes already.

“Utica is a very tough team,” said Vellucci. “I know Trent [Cull, Comets head coach] will get his team fired up to play us. It will be a tough test.”

Charlotte and Syracuse also faced off four times last season and split the series, alternating wins throughout the year. The two clubs were evenly matched, with three of the four meetings being decided by two goals.

“They always have a good team,” said Vellucci of Syracuse. “They’re always well coached and it will be a tough task for us.”

Five different skaters have lit the lamp thus far for the Crunch, who started the season 1-1-0, with rookie Alex Barre-Boulet leading the way with three points (2g, 1a).

3. BETWEEN THE PIPES

Alex Nedeljkovic took over last season for the Checkers and kept things rolling into the 2018-19 campaign, earning consecutive victories over Rochester to start the year.

“Ned is on fire, he carried it over from last year,” said Vellucci. “He wasn’t tested a lot in the first game but in that second game, we were under siege in the third period and they were all over us and he made some huge saves to keep us in it.”

Vellucci has mentioned that Nedeljkovic will take on even more of a workload this season as the number one netminder, but whether rookie Callum Booth gets a start over the weekend remains to be seen.

“Ned’s definitely going to play on Friday,” said Vellucci. “We’ll decide from there, I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

Thatcher Demko picked up the Comets’ lone win against the Checkers last season, but the young netminder is currently in the NHL with Vancouver. That has left the first two starts of the season to veteran Richard Bachman, who the Checkers beat three times a season ago while lighting the lamp 14 times. Utica is also carrying Ivan Kulbakov on their roster, a second-year pro who spent the majority of his rookie season in the ECHL with Quad City.

The Crunch’s duo heading into the weekend is Eddie Pasquale and Connor Ingram. Both netminders were solid against the Checkers last season, with the former surrendering one goal in a tough loss and the latter posting a 2.06 GAA and .960 save percentage across a two-game split. The veteran Pasquale has started each of the Crunch’s first two contests this season.

4. SOARING SPECIAL TEAMS

The power play was a point of pride for the Checkers last season, lifting the offense and finishing the year as one of the league’s best. Through this season’s small sample size, that appears to still be the case, as even amongst some personnel changes the Checkers have scored four times on seven man advantages thus far.

“We lost Wally and Z off that unit so we put Kuokkanen and Roy in there,” said Vellucci. “They were both on the other unit last year so now they just set up in those roles and they know exactly what they’re doing. We practice the power play a lot so it’s all repetition and understanding where each other is on the ice. They filled in nicely.”

The other half of special teams was more of a struggle last year, as Charlotte’s penalty kill registered in the bottom third of the league by the season’s end. With a strong emphasis and a new coach running it in Ryan Warsofsky, the Checkers’ penalty kill has shown signs of turning around early this season.

“That’s something that we’ve really been concentrating on,” said Vellucci of his team’s PK. “I was really happy with the penalty kill. We gave up one goal early and then shut them down the rest of the way.”

The reinvigorated penalty kill will be tested this weekend as both Utica and Syracuse boast a top-10 power play in this young season, with the Comets’ unit standing out at a 42.9 percent clip.

“Utica has a really good power play so we need to make sure we stay out of the box,” said Vellucci.

5. ROY WOWS

Nicolas Roy kicked off his second pro season with a bang, logging two goals and an assist in each contest against the Amerks. The 21-year-old is currently tied for the league lead in scoring with former Checker Zac Dalpe, who has played in one more game. Roy also matched the best two-game start in franchise history in terms of goals and points, matching Warren Foegele’s four goals in 2017-18 and Jon Matsumoto’s six points in 2011-12.

In Saturday’s win over Rochester Roy became the third player in franchise history to score both a power-play and shorthanded goal in a single game, joining Brock McGinn in 2016-17 and Chris Terry in 2010-11.

“Last year he put so much pressure on himself to score,” said Vellucci of Roy. “I’m trying to get him to relax and I kept telling him that I know he’s a goal scorer and I know he can make plays, just relax a little bit. I told him not to get frustrated, keep putting the puck on the net and good things would happen. It’s great for him. He worked so hard and he made things happen and got four goals.”

6. KUOKKANEN SHINES

While Roy garnered most of the headlines, one of his linemates jumped out to a solid start as well. Janne Kuokkanen recorded a thee-point game in the season opener and followed it up with a helper in Saturday’s win to start the year strong.

“Janne had an unbelievable first game, the key for him is he needs to follow it up with an even better second game,” said Vellucci.

“Consistency will be the key for him, to play the way he did in the first game every night. It’s not always going to be putting up points like that, but your effort level has to be consistent. He did that, I thought he had a really good second game too.”

7. POTTING POINTS

With two pro seasons now under his belt, Andrew Poturalski continues to grow as an offensive weapon for the Checkers. That was evident through the first two games, with the forward marking a four-point outing to start the year and adding a goal in the second game to rush out to five points on the season.

8. TUNE IN

You can tune in to this weekend's broadcasts with a subscription to the league’s new streaming platform AHLTV. Sign up here and catch the action on the road.

As always, the radio broadcast will be available via the Checkers app or this link, so tune in and tweet Jason Shaya to let him know you’re listening!