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Charlotte Checkers

Checkers Start Slow, Fall to Rampage

March 29, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Charlotte Checkers News Release


No matter how they responded throughout the rest of the game, the Checkers were going to have an awfully tough time getting over a slow start. Too tough, in fact.

The San Antonio Rampage scored three goals in the game's first 11 minutes and never looked back en route to an eventual 5-2 win over the Checkers at Time Warner Cable Arena on Friday. Brett Sutter scored his 16th goal of the season and Jared Staal added a late consolation tally for Charlotte, which got 26 saves from rookie goaltender Rob Madore.

Of the two losses Charlotte has suffered in its last four games, Friday's and a 4-1 loss at Houston last Thursday, both started with 3-0 deficits in the first period. Rather than focus on that issue, coach Jeff Daniels chose to take the entire game at face value.

"We didn't play well enough to win," he said. "We got what we deserved."

Charlotte did have its moments during a game that saw them fire 36 shots on goal, but every early mistake or strange bounce quickly ended up in the back of its net. The first occurred on the first shot of the game's first shift, when Checkers defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani, playing for the first time since missing seven games due to injury, fell at his own blue line, setting up a breakaway goal by Jack Combs.

As the period approached its midway point with Rasmus Rissanen serving a four-minute, double-minor for high sticking, Combs struck again when a shot from the point was partially blocked by a Charlotte defender, causing the puck to shoot high up into the air and fall near his stick for a no-look, backhand finish.

Seventy-six seconds later, John MacFarland intercepted Charlotte's attempt to clear a loose puck in front of goal back up the middle of the ice and effectively sent a one-timer past Madore, who had stopped 96 of 99 shots over the course of his first three AHL appearances prior to Friday.

Just like that, the Checkers' work was cut out for them.

"We had some tough bounces, but that's hockey," said Zac Dalpe, who was in the lineup for the first time since suffering an injury on March 1. "I don't think we quit, but that was our worst part of the game and it cost us."

Supporting Dalpe's assessment was the fact that his team had its best segment of the game immediately after falling behind by three goals, starting with alternate captain Nicolas Blanchard's spirited fight with 6-foot-6, 251-pound Rampage defenseman Nolan Yonkman.

Sutter would score soon after, finishing a great pass from team scoring leader Chris Terry, who extended his point streak to five games (2g, 4a), on a two-on-one break.

"Good things happen when the puck is on Chris Terry's stick," said Sutter. "You just put yourself in a shooting position and get ready, because he can get you the puck at any time."

Sutter's cousin Brody seemed to swing the momentum even further with a decisive victory in his fight with John Lee, but things more or less evened out over the course of the rest of the game, with the Rampage already having done more than enough to come away with their second consecutive victory despite playing in San Antonio the previous night while the Checkers rested.

"You can't play four or five minutes and expect to win the game," said Daniels. "We had spurts, but spurts are not enough."

"They're playing really hard right now and came at you every shift," said Brett Sutter. "You'd have to have a pretty special second half to come back from that."

Great goaltending from San Antonio's Dov Grumet-Morris also made that difficult, particularly in the second period when he produced a flashy glove save on Rissanen and a point-blank chance on Brett Sutter in front. He also did well to stop a partial first-period breakaway by Zach Boychuk, whose three-game goal streak came to an end.

"He played great," said the elder Sutter of Grumet-Morris. "Their defense also did a good job of pushing everything to the outside, and we've got to get to more rebounds tomorrow."

Combs sealed his hat trick in the third period in stylish fashion, lifting a puck into the opposite corner from in close. Staal picked up a consolation goal with 1:42 remaining, his career-best fourth of the season, but Jon Rheault canceled it out with an empty-net goal with four seconds left on the clock.

The teams meet again Saturday to conclude the eight-game season series between the two South Division rivals. Charlotte still leads the series, having won four of the previous seven games.

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