GRANDRAPIDS, Mich – On a night that saw blizzard conditions outside the arena, an announced crowd of 7669 watched as the Charlotte Checkers skated past the Grand Rapids Griffins, 2-1.
A scoreless first period sailed by faster than the howling winds outside as the teams skated up and down the ice for more than 11 minutes without a whistle.
Grand Rapids would turn on the light first for their only goal of the night at 14:47 of the second period when Kevin Porter scored his sixth goal of the year from just outside the crease.
“We were up 1-0 going into the third and tonight we found a way to lose,” Griffins coach Jeff Blashill said. “We did not have everybody on an elite level tonight we had some guys playing on B level and some guys playing on an A level.”
Charlotte would strike back early in the third to tie the game with Chad Larose (Holmstrom, Jensen) put in this ninth of the year at the 1:47 mark.
Charlotte’s Brendan Woods slapped in his seventh of the season past Griffins goaltender Jared Coreau at the 14:05 of the third for the game winner.
“The first period was a good pace with a lot of back and forth” Checkers coach Jeff Daniels said, “We picked our game up even more in the third period and got an early goal that gave us life on the bench.”
Charlotte travels to Milwaukee to face the Admirals Saturday night, while the Griffins have a chance to regroup at home as they face their conference rival the Chicago Wolves.
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