CHARLOTTE, NC – The Charlotte Checkers hammered the South Carolina Stingrays 5-3 to take the first game of the best-of-seven first round series tonight at the Extreme Ice Center before 818 fans. The Extreme Ice Center which normally serves as the practice rink for Charlotte was used due to a scheduling conflict at the Time Warner Cable Arena. The Checkers will host all of their home games in this series at the Extreme Ice Center.
The higher seeded South Carolina Stingrays could not kill off penalties in period one and could not stop Charlotte at even strength in period two never recovering from a Charlotte’s offensive onslaught in the second period. The ‘Rays compounded their problems by giving Charlotte 11 shorthanded opportunities. The loss was the ninth straight in road playoff games for South Carolina extending back to last year. The ‘Rays were 0-8 in road games in last year’s playoffs.
“They (Charlotte) had a little more “compete” in the first period,” said South Carolina coach Jared Bednar of his club. Accordingly, the Checkers got off to a fast start when the Stingrays drew a number of undisciplined penalties and the home team cashed in twice on five power plays to lead 2-1 at the first intermission.
On the night South Carolina committed 11 infractions. “Giving up 11 penalties in a playoff game is too much as we were a little undisciplined,” said Bednar.
Former Stingrays skater Marty Guerin started the scoring on the evening on a shot from the point at 4:47 on Charlotte’s first power play opportunity. Mike Bayrack and Michel Leveille got the assists on the goal. The Stingrays answered with an even strength goal when recent rookie addition Nick Berge beat goal tender Jeff Jakaitis less than two minutes after the Checkers had taken a 1-0 lead. He converted a pass from Zack Tarkir and pushed the puck past Jakaitis.
The 1-1 tie didn’t last long as Ethan Graham found the net at 13:40 again on a power play. His shot was a backdoor play as he scored from the short side off passes from Matthew Ford and Bayrack who picked up his second assist of the evening.
Period two looked good for a short period of time for the Stingrays. Early in the period a two minute minor to Graham gave the Stingrays the chance to tie it up and defenseman Patrick Wellar blasted a shot from the point past Jakaitis to do so. Jeff Corey and Trent Campbell got assists on the goal 0:38 into the period. That was the last time the Stingrays would be in the game as Charlotte would answer in a big way to put the game out of reach.
First however, Charlotte’s starting goaltender Jakaitis had to leave the game at the 2:16 mark of the second period. Maxime Daigneault was required to relieve him when Jakaitis was injured on a shot by South Carolina’s Scott Romfro. Romfo hammered a blast from the top of the circle that caught Jakaitis flush on the mask. The force of the shot cut Jakaitis over his right eye despite his mask’s protection. It required 13 stitches to close the laceration.
Charlotte responded to this adversity by scoring three straight goals in a span of just over two minutes. Mathew Ford got the first at 8:10 with assists going to Bayrack and Leveille. Guerin then got his second of the night at 10:10 with helpers to Ryan Murphy and Andrew Carroll. Bayrack, a regular season scoring nemesis against the Rays, scored the fifth goal of the evening for Charlotte at 10:32. He was assisted on the goal, his fourth point on the evening, by Graham and Chris Murray.
The three straight goals saw the second goalie change on the evening as the Rays coach Bednar pulled starter Jonathan Boutin from goal and replaced him with James Reimer. The barrage also effectively ended the game as the Stingrays were unable to muster any real momentum for the rest of the second period and until late in the game.
The Stingrays got a late goal in the last period when Kashirsky made a highlight reel pass to set up a goal at 15:26 by Matt Scherer. Daigneault got the win and Reimer, who replaced Boutin, took the loss allowed no additional scoring.
Bednar was pragmatic as he commented on the loss. “This game came down to the second period where they got multiple opportunities at the puck in front of the net. Our guys knew Charlotte has a good team and this will be a long series.”
The Checkers look to keep the Stingrays off balance in game two of the series which is set for Saturday night in Charlotte at the Extreme Ice Arena with a 7:00 PM faceoff.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com Catch all the playoffs at Intotheboards.net
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