The Checkers and Thunderbirds locked in a goaltending duel Saturday night, but it was the visitors who emerged with a 3-1 victory.
After a scoreless first period, Hunter St. Martin broke the ice early in the second by jamming home a loose puck for his first pro goal. The Thunderbirds would find the equalizer in the waning stages of the middle frame, and that deadlock would roll deep into the third.
The difference came on a fluke bounce late in the third, when a puck was chipped into the corner of the Charlotte zone but careened off the boards back toward the net, where Springfield forward Matt Luff was there to cash in on the unfortunate sequence.
The Checkers couldn’t pull even down the stretch, and an empty netter sealed the 2-1 win for Springfield despite a formidable 29-save performance from rookie netminder Kirill Gerasimyuk.
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the game
In the first period there were pockets of good and then there were pockets of not so good, and then it kind of carried over to the second period. There wasn’t a lot of flow to the game, but I’ve got to give Springfield a lot of credit. I thought they played hard. Obviously a bad bounce at the end, but I felt like they deserved the win more than we did.
Kinnear on Kirill Gerasimyuk
I thought the second period was great. On our power play, (Springfield) had some Grade A’s and he kept us in it a little bit. He’s like every other young kid we have on the team, they’re growing over time. He grew tonight for me. It wasn’t as easy of a game as the last few that he’s been in, but a goalie’s job is to allow us to try to win the hockey game. Unfortunately he did his job and we didn’t do ours.
Kinnear on giving up good scoring chances while on the power play
It’s too much of a trend. We’ve got to clean it up. As coaches and as players. It can’t keep happening. Part of the power play is that you’re not going to score on every one, but you have to create momentum for our group, not momentum for the other group.
Kinnear on Hunter St. Martin’s progression
It’s like we just talked about, guys are gaining confidence. We’re 25 or 26 games into it, I’m not sure the exact total, but they’re getting more confident, understanding the league and understanding the expectations. We should have got more juice after he scored. I thought after he scored, they kind of carried the play which shouldn’t happen. Good for the kid, because I know he’s been hungry to score the last little while.
NOTES
The Checkers are now 2-1-0-0 against the Thunderbirds this season … St. Martin’s goal was his first as a pro … Gerasimyuk’s 29 saves were one shy of his career high … St. Martin has points in each of his last three games … Marek Alscher has assists in three straight games … Mitch Vande Sompel, Ryan McAllister, Liam McLinskey, Colton Huard, Eamon Powell, Mikulas Hovorka, MacKenzie Entwistle, Riese Gaber, Tyler Motte and Louis Domingue were the scratches for Charlotte