Charlotte rallies and salvages point from slow start

CHARLOTTE, NC – Peoria jumped out of the starting blocks and within 33

seconds were 1-0. Charlotte came right back and peppered the Rivermen’s goal but goalie Mike McKenna kept the Checkers forwards at bay. This especially applied to the second period when Peoria were hit with two and a half minutes of penalties, which they killed off successfully.
 
Charlotte kept the pressure on Peoria but it was the visitors who went further ahead just before the end of the second period. Rivermen’s Mark Cundari’s shot from the point; the puck went through a crowd in to the net, beating Dan Ellis. Charlotte had dominated the period outshooting Peoria 34 -17 unfortunately they were now 2-0 down.
 
Give the guys credit because it would have been easy to pack it in and get ready for tomorrow, but they kept coming,” said coach Jeff Daniels.
 
“I don’t think anyone would have bet on us coming back,” said Zach Boychuk, who now has eight points (1g, 7a) over the course of a five-game point streak.
 
The third period was only a few minutes old when Chris Bruton added to Peoria’s score then Andrew Murray made it 4-0 the visitors. It was then that Coach Daniels pulled Ellis from the Checkers net for Justin Peters.
 
Up to then Charlotte had taken over 40 shots on the Peoria goal without success, it was then that Bobby Sangunetti struck with two vital goals. That gave the Checkers some real hope, Riley Nash received a wonderful pass from Zac Dalpe to narrow the score to 4-3 Peoria. Leaving it to the dying seconds, five to be exact, Zach Boychuk scored the tying goal for Charlotte.
 
“We just had to start with the first one,” said Bobby Sanguinetti. “It seemed like it gave some energy to the team.”
 
In to the shootout and Charlotte missed every opportunity while Peoria scored twice leaving them 5-4 winners of a really enjoyable game.
 
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” said Boychuk, who, despite his career-long assist streak, was in the midst of an eight-game goal drought. “I’ve been searching for that goal for a while now.”
 
“You go to the shootout and you’re rolling the dice at that point,” said Daniels. “We wanted to get two points and we didn’t get two points.”
 
Peoria stay in town for the next game on December 21^st face-off 7.00PM at Time Warner Cable Arena.
 
Eddie.Mitchell@ProHockeyNews.com
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews