Checkers Suffer Second Straight Defeat to Providence

The Checkers couldn’t right the ship in Sunday’s rematch with Providence, falling to the Bruins 5-2.

The Bruins opened the scoring early, capitalizing on a power play less than five minutes into play, but the Checkers were able to swing things in their favor from there. Zac Dalpe lit the lamp midway through the frame to even the score, then Lucas Carlsson kicked off the second by hammering in a one-timer for a shorthanded goal that pushed the home side ahead.

Providence responded with a big swing shortly after, however - knotting the score with another power-play tally and then striking twice in the span of 59 seconds to cruise into the second intermission with a 4-2 lead.

The Checkers had no answer down the stretch, and one more marker in the third would put a cap on the lopsided defeat for Charlotte.

QUOTES

Coach Geordie Kinnear on the game
A back-and-forth game for a little bit, and then we made a couple of individual mistakes and again, we’re chasing the game. We have a chance to make it 4-3 and their goalie comes up with a great save, and then the third period is what it is.

Kinnear on avoiding lapses like the ones that allowed Providence to score in bunches this weekend
It’s one shift at a time, be mentally tough, focus on the next shift and make sure you go win it. You’ve got to give them a ton of credit because they’re feeling good about themselves and they’re playing real good hockey. They played two really good road games. I felt like we had really good moments and then moments that we weren’t as sharp and it ended up in the back of our net.

Kinnear on the special teams battle
It was difficult, obviously. You lose guys in the first period but it’s their job to stay ready. You don’t want to take five penalties in the first period and two of them were in the offensive zone. We’ve got to clean that up. We pride ourselves on being a team that doesn’t beat themselves. Taking offensive-zone penalties, that’s beating yourself.

Kinnear on moving forward
Individually you’ve got to be better, and then as a group collectively be more in sync than we were. Pick up and move on. It’s hockey. It’s not a perfect sport. There’s going to be mistakes individually, and you’ve just got to be able to move on from them. We pride ourselves on doing that. We’ve just got to continue to get better day in and day out.

NOTES

The Checkers have lost consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 10-11 … The Checkers’ ninth shorthanded goal of the season ties them for second-most in the AHL … Carlsson’s 17th goal of the season extends his single-season team record for a defenseman and is at least two more than any other AHL blue liner … Grigori Denisenko had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (1g, 6a) … The Checkers’ streak of five straight games without allowing a power-play goal came to an end as Providence went 2-for-7 … The Checkers went 2-5-1 in their season series with the division-leading Bruins, who won their seventh straight game … Checkers scratches included forwards Logan Hutsko, Ethan Keppen, Mark Senden and Justin Sourdif, defenseman Dennis Cesana and goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick.