Game Preview: Checkers vs. Texas (Jan. 3, 2014)

After losing a two-goal lead in a disappointing loss on Thursday, the Checkers will look to bounce back as they have another go at the Texas Stars tonight.

Texas skated away 5-3 winners in the first meeting of the season between the West Division rivals, having stormed back from a 3-1 deficit for their second comeback win in three days. That put them just one point behind Abbotsford for the division lead and the top spot in the Western Conference, while the Checkers remained four points out of playoff position.

Tonight's game is the second of four consecutive home games that the Checkers will play against Texas, who return to Time Warner Cable for two more games in two weeks. In the meantime, Charlotte will make a trip to Oklahoma City as the team's divisional schedule heats up.

Charlotte

Having been reasonably happy with their play from December on, the Checkers entered Thursday’s game pleased enough with the track they were on, particularly after winning two of three games on the road. However, given the hole from their subpar November, losses like the one against Texas, in which they enjoyed a fast start against one of the league’s best teams, are tough to take.

“It’s unacceptable,” said Chris Terry, who netted a power-play goal for the second time in as many games. “We’re in the second half of the season now and had a lead against a top team in our conference. We needed these two points.

“Every game is our biggest game of the year right now. We’ve got to continue to win and put streaks together. We can’t win one and lose one the rest of the year because we won’t make it.”

After winning four straight games from Dec. 10-19, the Checkers have now lost four of six, including three in a row at home, since Dec. 20. A trend in their recent home games is giving up goals in quick succession, as they’ve allowed the opposition to score two goals within a minute or less in each of their last five at Time Warner Cable Arena. In their last three home games, the second goal in each of those spurts counted as the game winner.

“It’s definitely come up more than once,” said center A.J. Jenks, who played arguably his best game of the season on Thursday with one assist and a hand in several first-period scoring chances. “It’s something you never want to do. The biggest shifts in games are the ones right after goals for or against, and you always want to keep the momentum going if you score and turn it around if they get a goal. It’s an issue that we’re working to solve right now.”

The Checkers may need to make a last-minute addition for tonight’s game as Jared Staal, who was returning from an 11-game injury absence, was not able to play in Thursday’s third period. Following the game, coach Jeff Daniels said it was possible that Staal had re-aggravated the injury.

Without Staal, the Checkers would not have any skaters available of replacing him in the lineup. Center Greg Nemisz has yet to clear immigration following his acquisition from Abbotsford, while Sean Dolan and defensemen Danny Biega and Rasmus Rissanen remain out due to injury.

The Checkers, who have recently lost first-liners Zach Boychuk and Brett Sutter to the NHL, already have two professional tryout signings at forward in Jenks and Matthew Pistilli, both of whom had previously played for the team under NHL contracts with Carolina.

Update: Nemisz has arrived in Charlotte and will play tonight while Staal is officially listed as doubtful.

Texas

Now the league’s best offensive team, the Stars followed up a 6-5 win on Tuesday in which they scored five unanswered goals with a five-spot against the Checkers on Thursday. AHL scoring leader Travis Morin scored twice, and the AHL’s deadliest power play converted on both of its opportunities, needing just 57 total seconds to do so.

In short, Texas ended up being everything the stat sheet said they would be.

That’s something the Checkers will be even more wary of now that they’ve had a chance to see it in person. Though it worked for them for most of two periods, they’ll try to avoid the kind of run-and-gun game that was exciting to watch but clearly favors the high-flying visitors, who still have three of the league’s top scorers in Morin, Chris Mueller (fourth) and reigning Rookie of the Month Curtis McKenzie (tied for 10th) even after losing AHL goal-scoring leader Colton Sceviour to the parent Dallas Stars on Thursday afternoon.

“That’s not our style,” said Daniels, who saw the game gradually turn from a back-and-forth affair to something more one-sided in the third period. “We don’t want to get into it with that team and trade chances back and forth. It’s not the game we want to play against them.”

The Checkers will want to continue to avoid the penalty box, something that hasn’t been much of an issue this season as they average the fifth-fewest penalty minutes in the league. It wasn’t even an issue on Thursday with the two power plays allowed tying a season low.

“They’re probably over 30 percent now on the power play and in the first time we’ve played them this year you can kind of understand why,” said Daniels of the Stars, whose Thursday performance did indeed push them to 30.3 percent. “Both times their second unit scored. We didn’t even see their first unit.”

Goalie Cristopher Nilstorp stopped 29 of 32 shots while making his sixth consecutive start on Thursday. During that stretch of starts, he played on back-to-back nights on two separate occasions, making it entirely possible that he's in the net again tonight. Backup Josh Robinson, a recall from the ECHL with 2010 first-round draft pick Jack Campbell injured, has a 2.17 goals-against average and .902 save percentage in five career AHL games, all this season.

Update: Sceviour returned from the NHL Friday morning.

Checkers Notes

Palushaj Picks up the Pace

Forward Aaron Palushaj has scored 14 points (3g, 11a) in his last 10 games, including eight during an active five-game point streak. His assist against Texas on Thursday allowed him to overtake Zach Boychuk, who has missed the last four games while on NHL duty with Carolina, for the team's scoring lead with 28 points in 32 games.

Palushaj, who has recorded at least one point in nine of his last 10 games since Dec. 10, also leads the Checkers with 19 assists, at least six more than any other player and good for an eighth-place tie among all AHL skaters.

Shooting Gallery

The Checkers have allowed 38 or more shots in each of their last three games (40 at Chicago on Dec. 29, 43 in Rockford on Dec. 30 and 38 against Texas on Jan. 2), marking the first time they have done so since allowing 47, 46 and 40 shots in a three-game stretch from April 11-13 of last season. Two of those games were played against Texas and one against Chicago, also teams that make up the Checkers' current streak.

Prior to this stretch, the Checkers had allowed 38 or more shots in just four of 30 games.

Offense Picking Up

The Checkers have scored three goals in each of their last four games, marking the first time they have hit or exceeded that mark in four consecutive games since Jan. 4-12 of last season. The Checkers rank 18th in the AHL with an average of 2.70 goals per game and are 13-6-0 when scoring at least three goals.

Power Players

The Checkers, who rank fourth in the AHL with a 23.0 percent success rate on the power play, have scored 39.3 percent of their goals on the power play (35 of 89), which is the highest percentage of any AHL team. However, that percentage has been dropping lately, with 10 of the team's last 12 goals scored at even strength.

For the season, Charlotte's 52 even-strength goals are tied for the fourth-fewest in the league.

Costly Lapses

The Checkers have allowed two goals within a one-minute span in each of their last five home games dating back to Dec. 15. They won the first two such games against Norfolk on Dec. 15 and 19 before losing the next three against Toronto on Dec. 20 and 21 and against Texas on Jan. 2. In each of the three losses, the second goal allowed during those spurts ended up counting as the game-winning goal.

Divided Division

In 33 games, the Checkers have played against their own division, the West, just six times (4-2-0), marking the fewest games that any AHL team has played within its own division. However, tonight's game against Texas marks the second of a stretch in which they play eight of nine against divisional opponents. The West Division is the only division that the Checkers have a winning record against.

Quick Hits

• The Checkers have a six-game losing streak, a four-game winning streak and a three-game losing streak (active) at home this season.
• Charlotte's three overtime games are the fewest in the league, as is its lone shootout appearance.
• Charlotte is one of three teams that have yet to score a shorthanded goal.
• Despite not scoring a goal since Dec. 7 (10 games) Mark Flood is tied for third among all AHL defensemen with eight goals and ranks third with five power-play goals.
• The Checkers have an even goal differential in the first period (28 for, 28 against), making it the only period in which they do not have a negative differential.
• Charlotte has both scored (32) and allowed (40) more goals in the third period than in any other period.

Player Streaks

• Aaron Palushaj has assists and points in each of his last five games (Dec. 21-Jan.2: 2g, 6a)
• Chris Terry has power-play goals and points in each of his last two games (Dec. 30-Jan. 2: 2g, 0a)

Milestones

• Austin Levi scored his first professional goal against Rockford on Dec. 30

Injuries

• Sean Dolan - missed 13 games starting Dec. 1
• Rasmus Rissanen - missed 10 games starting Dec. 10
• Danny Biega - missed eight games starting Dec. 15

Transactions

Incoming

• Dec. 30 - (C) Greg Nemisz acquired by Carolina (NHL) and assigned to Charlotte
• Dec. 27 - (RW) Matthew Pistilli signed to professional tryout contract from Florida (ECHL)

Outgoing

• Jan. 2 - (C) Brett Sutter recalled to Carolina (NHL) from Charlotte
• Dec. 31 - (G) Anton Khudobin recalled to Carolina (NHL) from Charlotte