RECAP | Senators – Checkers: Belleville Squanders Early Lead in Charlotte

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Photo by Charlotte Checkers

 

FINAL | 2017-18 Season, Game 18 | Tuesday November 21, 2017 
Bojangles’ Coliseum, Charlotte, NC

SENATORS
Belleville

2-4

CHECKERS
Charlotte

Photo by Charlotte Checkers

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]McCormick – O’Brien – Gagne
Vaive – White – Rodewald
Perron – Chlapik – Werek
Dunn – Reinhart – Randell[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Sieloff – Burgdoerfer
Englund – Jaros
Murray – Erkamps[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:
Driedger
Hammond

Scratches: Danny Taylor, Daniel Ciampini

Injured Reserve: Mike Blunden, Kyle Flanagan, Ben Sexton

Game Report

After getting off to a rocky start to their road trip Friday night in Utica, the Belleville Senators continued their trip in Charlotte for the first of a two-game set with the Checkers.

The first period got off to a great start for the Senators. Just two minutes into the frame, Ethan Werek fired a one-timer off a beautiful Francis Perron pass, past Alex Nedeljkovic to make it 1-0 Belleville. Then just 28 seconds later, Max Reinhart fired one from the point that fooled Nedeljkovic, extending the Senators lead. The Checkers did respond on the power play, courtesy of Brendan Kichton, but that was all they got in the frame. After 20 minutes, the Senators led 2-1.

The second period was uneventful for the most part. The Senators had their chances to extend their lead early in the frame but did not capitalize. This came back to haunt them as the Checkers scored on the power play after an Andreas Englund interference penalty. It was Aleksi Saarela firing it past Chris Driedger to even the score 2-2. The teams headed to the third period tied up at two apiece.

The third period brought more of the same. The teams exchanged chances, Charlotte getting more of them, but the goaltenders stood tall early in the third. Especially Driedger who made a pair of post-to-post stops to keep the game tied at two apiece. But Charlotte kept on coming and after a Macoy Erkamps turnover behind the Senators net, Janne Kuokkanen found a wide open Saarela who made no mistake, giving the Checkers their first lead of the night.

Kuokkanen added an empty-netter to make it 4-2 and that was the final score in this one. The Senators put two on the board early, but squandered high quality chances throughout the game and it cost them dearly.

Belleville has little time to reflect on this loss as they get right back to work tomorrow night against the same Charlotte Checkers.

▲ Chris Driedger, Jordan Murray, Colin White, Filip Chlapik

▼ Macoy Erkamps, Max McCormick, Andreas Englund

 Statistics 
SENATORS   CHECKERS
23 Shots 33
0 for 3 Power Play 2 for 4
28 Penalty Minutes 6
 Scoring
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 Senators (8-9-0-1) 2 0 0 2
 Checkers (11-7-0-0) 1 1 2 4
Scorers Goalies
  • BEL: Werek (6), Reinhart (3)
  • CHA: Kichton (1), Saarela (5), Saarela (6), Kuokkanen (3)
  • BEL: Driedger (L) 0-1-0-0
  • CHA: Nedeljkovic (W) 8-2-0-0
 AHL Three Stars
ahl14_200  

  1. Aleksi Saarela  CHA
  2. Janne Kuokkanen  CHA
  3. Brendan Kichton  CHA

 Video highlights
 Post-game interview
 

Quotes courtesy of AHL Report

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