Game Preview: Checkers vs. Grand Rapids (March 12, 2015)

The Checkers will get another chance to knock off the red-hot Grand Rapids Griffins when the teams play a rematch at Time Warner Cable Arena tonight.

The visitors' 3-2 victory on Tuesday, in which they narrowly held off a valient Checkers' comeback bid in the third period, extended their point streak to 16 games (13-0-3). It is the longest in the AHL since Norfolk won 28 in a row during their 2011-12 Calder Cup campaign.

Charlotte, which has won five of its last seven games on home ice, completes its five-game home stand tonight. The team will embark on a season-long run of six consecutive road games starting this Saturday in Oklahoma City.

Charlotte

Welcoming the hottest team in the AHL into town, the Checkers were nearly able to upend the streaking Griffins but could not quite muster up enough to complete the comeback.

Despite only being able to register 21 shots and put two pucks in the back of the Grand Rapids net Tuesday, the Checkers’ offense has shown some signs of life recently with several players seeing a steep increase in their production as of late. Brock McGinn moved into second among Checkers rookies when he put his team on the board first Tuesday night, his seventh point in his last 10 games.

Ben Holmstrom and Dennis Robertson each extended their personal point streaks to three games with helpers on the McGinn tally. Holmstrom, who had 10 points through his first 42 games this season, has eight in his last nine contests. Those eight assists are also the most by any Charlotte player during that stretch. Robertson, who spent time as a healthy scratch early in the season, has put up six points in his last 11 games. His 10 helpers rank third among the team’s rookies.

The more well-known scorers have awoken during this recent stretch as well. Upon joining Charlotte on Jan. 8, Zach Boychuk was held off the scoresheet in 10 of the first 13 games he played with the Checkers. Since then, however, the reigning AHL goals champ has come alive, recording a point in nine of his last 11 contests. His current five-game point streak (3g, 3a) is one shy of the longest streak by a Checkers player this season. In addition to Boychuk, Justin Shugg, who has claimed a share of the goals and points lead since Chad LaRose has been sidelined, has lit it up for 10 points in his last 12 games.

The Checkers’ blue line has chipped in offensively as well, led by Trevor Carrick. The 20-year-old's 19 points are just three shy of Ryan Murphy’s rookie defensemen record, while his six goals are the most by a first-year blue liner in franchise history. Carrick, who racked up 51 points in his final year of junior, has been especially lethal recently, with five points in his last five games. With three of their top defensemen in the NHL for the rest of the season (Rissanen, Jordan and Murphy), Carrick has been thrown onto the top pairing alongside Danny Biega and has held his own.

Between the pipes, the cycle of alternating starts between the two netminders came to an end Tuesday night as Drew MacIntyre started his second consecutive game. It marked the first instance since Feb. 7 that a Checkers goalie has made back-to-back starts. MacIntyre has been hot and cold down the stretch, busting out of a slump with consecutive wins before last night’s tough one-goal loss. Muse has been up and down as well, seeing his hot streak put to an end with two losses in his last three contests.

Grand Rapids

The Griffins enter tonight looking unstoppable. With Tuesday’s 3-2 win, Grand Rapids extended its point streak to 16 games, a franchise record and the longest in the AHL since 2011-12. Mired in a three-way tie for seventh on Feb. 4, they have skyrocketed to first in the Western Conference and are tied for the second-best record in the league.

They have been propelled by the AHL’s top-ranked offensive attack, led by the league’s current points and goals leader, Teemu Pulkkinen. While Pulkkinen is in the NHL with Detroit now, several others have picked up the slack for Grand Rapids. Former Hobey Baker Award winner Andy Miele ranks third in the AHL in scoring and is tied for fourth in assists and has been especially deadly recently, with 24 points in his last 20 games.

Grand Rapids has also been aided by a highly-touted trio of rookies in Mark Zengerle, Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou. Zengerle, a former teammate of Brendan Woods at the University of Wisconsin, went undrafted but has made an impact in his first pro year, leading Griffins rookies in scoring and ranking fifth overall on the active roster. Zengerle has been on fire as of late, with 15 points in his last 14 games, including an active five-game point streak.

Mantha, the most highly-regarded of the bunch, was drafted 20th overall in 2013 and put up a ridiculous 120 points (57g, 63a) in his final year of junior en route to being named the CHL player of the year. After getting hurt in a prospects tournament before the season started, the 20-year-old’s pro career has started a bit slowly, but Mantha has now recorded five points in his last seven games. More importantly, he has formed a highly-lethal duo with Athanasiou, who has 26 points in 40 games. The rookie forward showed a glimpse of what he can do when he scored a highlight reel goal on Tuesday, toe-dragging around a Charlotte defenseman and firing the puck top shelf while falling to the ice. 

With Petr Mrazek with the Red Wings right now, Tom McCollum is the man for Grand Rapids. While Mrazek and Jared Coreau have handled a lot of the work load as of late, McCollum has stood tall when called upon. The sixth-year pro has earned a point in each of his last nine starts for Grand Rapids, including seven wins. In those wins, McCollum has recorded a goals against average of 1.69 and a save percentage of .933.

Checkers Notes

Against Grand Rapids

Tonight marks the sixth of eight meetings between the Checkers and Grand Rapids this season. The Checkers are 1-3-1 thus far, with the three regulation losses coming in the only three games played at Time Warner Cable Arena. In 17 all-time contests between the two clubs, the Checkers hold a 9-7-1 record, including a 4-5-0 mark in Charlotte.

Brendan Woods (2g, 1a) and Alex Aleardi (1g, 2a) lead all active Checkers in scoring against Grand Rapids this season, while Andy Miele (1g, 4a) sits atop all current Griffins. Kevin Porter is the only active Grand Rapids skater to have scored multiple goals (2) against the Checkers this season.

In goal, Charlotte's Drew MacIntyre played the entirety of all five matchups, posting a 2.61 goals-against average and .922 save percentage. Tom McCollum is the only goalie on the team's active roster to have faced the Checkers this season and is 3-0-0 with a 1.66 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. Backup Jeff Lerg has yet to make his AHL debut.

Home Cooking

The Checkers have won five of their last seven games at home dating back to Feb. 16 and are now 16-13-2 at Time Warner Cable Arena this season. Meanwhile, they are just 7-18-4 on the road, with their 18 points earned marking the fewest of any AHL team.

Tonight's game concludes a five-game home stand. The Checkers will begin a season-long stretch of six consecutive road games starting this Saturday in Oklahoma City before returning for a season-long, six-game home stand from March 27-April 12 that will mark their last-ever games at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Boychuk's Back

Reigning AHL goal-scoring champion Zach Boychuk has found his scoring touch of late with six goals and 10 points in his last 11 games, including an active five-game point streak (3g, 3a) that is one shy of tying the longest posted by a Checkers player this season (Chad LaRose from Jan. 15-30). Since being held off the score sheet in 10 of 13 games following his reassignment from the NHL on Jan. 8, he has scored at least one point in nine of his last 11.

Five of Boychuk's 10 goals this season have come on the power play, putting him one behind Chad LaRose for the team lead in that category and making him responsible for 17.9 percent of the team's total (28 goals) despite playing in only 26 games. Boychuk led the AHL with 18 power-play goals last season, with that total accounting for exactly half of his team-record 36 on the campaign.

Boychuk is the Checkers' all-time leader with 112 goals and 51 power-play goals in 268 games played.

Carrick Lights It Up

Rookie defenseman Trevor Carrick has found his scoring touch of late, recording five points (2g, 3a) in his last five games. He currently leads all Checkers defensemen in goals (six) and points (19). His goal total is a new record for a Checkers rookie defenseman while his point total ranks second behind Ryan Murphy's 22 in 2013-14.

A fourth-round pick in 2012, the 20-year-old Carrick put up 51 points in his final season of junior last year, split between Mississauga and Sudbury, and ranked second among OHL defensemen in goals (22).

Powering Up

The Checkers have scored a power-play goal in seven of their last eight games dating back to Feb. 22, going 7-for-30 (23.3 percent) during that time. As a result, their power play has risen out of the league's lowest-ranked spot it had occupied since Dec. 14 and now ranks 28th in the AHL at 12.2 percent.

Charlotte also has an active streak of five consecutive games with a power-play goal (5-for-15: 33.3 percent), marking its longest such streak since Dec. 30-Jan. 11 of last season (also five games).

Killing It

Since Feb. 16, the Checkers have killed 30 of 32 penalties (93.8 percent) and have risen to 10th in the league with a season-long percentage of 85.7.

The Checkers are tied for seventh in the league with seven shorthanded goals, which are two behind the league lead and four more than their AHL-low total from all of last season.

MacIntyre's Workload

After becoming the first Checkers goalie to start consecutive games since he last did so on Feb. 6 and 7, Drew MacIntyre now ranks fourth in the AHL with 2,301 minutes played and is second with 1,131 saves. He would only need to appear in eight of the team's last 16 games to tie the franchise record for games played by a goaltender in a single season (48 by Justin Pogge in 2010-11).

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 208 and is just 24 wins away from tying Frederic Cassivi for fifth. He has a 208-137-25 record, 2.46 goals-against average, .935 save percentage and 16 shutouts in 393 career AHL games dating back to the 2004-05 season.

Shootout Success

The Checkers' four shootout victories this season (4-1 record) are tied for the second-highest total in the league behind San Antonio and Lehigh Valley (both 5-1).

Charlotte has accomplished that feat despite scoring just five goals on 23 attempts (.217, 21st AHL). Meanwhile, their goaltending tandem of Drew MacIntyre (19 saves on 20 attempts) and John Muse (three saves on four attempts) has given the Checkers the third-best save percentage in the league at .917 percent. In MacIntyre's only shootout loss of the season, he stopped seven of eight while receiving no goals of support. MacIntyre is tied for third in the AHL with three shootout victories, having stopped all comers in each win.

Quick Hits

• After scoring 10 points in his first 42 games of the season, Ben Holmstrom has eight (all assists) in his last nine
• Justin Shugg has 10 points (3g, 7a) in his last 12 outings and is now tied with Chad LaRose for the Checkers' lead in points (31).
• Drew MacIntyre ranks second in the AHL with 1,131 saves and fifth with 2,301 minutes played
• The Checkers are the only AHL team that has yet to record a shutout
• Charlotte's two shorthanded goals allowed are tied with Manchester for the fewest in the league
• Despite playing just 25 games this season and none since Jan. 23, Ryan Murphy leads all Checkers with 17 assists
• Kyle Hagel is tied for second in the league with 19 major penalites
• The Checkers' .638 winning percentage when scoring the game's first goal is the third-lowest in the AHL

Streaks

• Zach Boychuk has points in each of his last five games (3g, 3a) and points in each of his last seven home games (4g, 4a)
• Ben Holmstrom has assists and points in each of his last three games (0g, 3a)
• Dennis Robertson has points in each of his last three games (1g, 2a)

Injuries

• Keegan Lowe - missed five games starting 2/27
• Chad LaRose - missed seven games starting 2/25
• Greg Nemisz - missed 39 games starting 12/8 (out for season)

Milestones

• Brody Sutter is three shy of 50 AHL points
• Zach Boychuk is three shy of 200 AHL PIM
• Danny Biega is five shy of 100 AHL/pro PIM
• Sean Dolan is nine shy of 100 AHL pro PIM
• Kyle Hagel is eight shy of 1,000 pro PIM

Transactions

Incoming

• None

Outgoing

• March 11 - (LW) Gabriel Desjardins released from professional tryout contract