NORFOLK, Va – A tough road trip did not stop Charlotte from turning on the style against Norfolk Admirals. They have now won three consecutive games against the Admirals, this season they are 3-1-1 with three home games to play against the team from Virginia.
Brett Sutter, got the Checkers on the board after 7.19 in the first period when he took Evgenii Dadonov’s rebound and slotted it past Jaroslav Janus in the Admirals goal. Dadonov was recently traded from the Florida Everblades and this was his first point for the Checkers.
Six minutes later Drayson Bowman scored number two on a power play after receiving a pass from Bobby Sanguinetti. Philip-Michael Devos closed the gap for the Admirals, a situation that was short lived as Matthew Pistilli made the score 3-1 to Charlotte when his initial shot rebounded back to him, and he put it home past the Admirals goalie.
With just over a minute remaining in regulation Dadonov scored an empty-net goal, 4-1 Charlotte. Eric Nelson made the score a little more respectable scoring Norfolk’s second with ten seconds to play in the game.
Mike Murphy was injured during the warm-up so John Muse came on making 29 saves, Muse is now 4-0-0 on the season, he has proved to be a solid back-up for Murphy.
Charlotte has opened a three point lead in the race with Norfolk for the GEICO Challenge Cup. The trophy will be awarded to the team with the most points in the eight-game season series.
The Checkers have a two-game home stand against Rockford on Thursday, January 26 and Friday January 27 face-off 7p.m. The team will have a break for six days due to the All Star game.
Chris Terry has been named to the All-Star Classic in place of Jerome Samson. The All-Star game is being played in Atlantic City on Monday, January 30, face-off 7p.m.
EddieMitchell@ProHockeyNews.com
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