After falling behind 2-1 midway through the second, the Checkers traded tallies with the Admirals, with Justin Shugg tying the game early in the third with a one-time blast off an offensive zone faceoff. But it was Max Reinhart who would have the last laugh, potting a breakaway goal two minutes later to put the Admirals back on top. The Checkers continued to mount pressure throughout the rest of regulation, including a furious stretch in the final minute, but couldn’t find the late-game magic typical of some other games this season, falling by one goal.
Mike Cornell, who rejoined the Checkers on a professional tryout contract Thursday to help flesh out an ailing blue line, provided most of the offense for Charlotte, threading two shots from the point through traffic and in for the first multi-goal game of his pro career.
“We had some guys really step up,” said head coach Mark Morris. “Cornell did a fabulous job of stepping in and generating some offense from the point, and again, our workhorses were [Trevor] Carrick and [Jaccob] Slavin.”
While the Checkers were able to produce some offense and battle back multiple times, their downfall was quickly allowing the Admirals to jump back into the games, with Milwaukee’s third and fourth goal coming within three minutes of a Checkers’ tally.
“We let them back in as soon as we struck back and climbed back into the game,” said Morris. “It was pretty disheartening to work that hard to get a goal and then give one up right after. I can¹t fault our guys for all the energy we expended. We worked our tails off but we¹ve got to do a better job of shutting them down.”
“I think any time after a goal for or against it’s important to have a strong shift the next shift,” said Cornell. “Whether that’s just getting the puck deep right away and trying to kill that momentum, I think that¹s important. Obviously tonight they responded really quickly and that kind of did us in.”
While the Checkers certainly had their foot on the gas in the last half of the third trying to get that tying goal, credit has to be given to Milwaukee’s rookie netminder Juuse Saros, who made 29 stops and frustrated the home team all night.
“Their goalie stood on his head,” said Morris. ”He was sensational in the latter part of the game. We did everything we could to score a goal and he stopped them all.”
The Checkers will have a quick 24 hours to regroup before facing this same Milwaukee team in a rematch tomorrow night. While there were plenty of positives in Charlotte’s game tonight, the team will definitely take a look at their mistakes in hopes of erasing them.
“The game is so fast and things happen quickly and you just have to react a lot of times,” said Cornell. “But I’m sure we’ll watch a lot of video and break it down and have a plan of attack for tomorrow.”
Morris has a simple message for his team going into the rematch.
“Get a good focus and get right back to work.”
