ECHL Charlotte Checkers

Checkers beaten by Greenville 5-2

February 24, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL)
Charlotte Checkers News Release


(Greenville, South Carolina) The Greenville Grrrowl jumped on the Checkers with four first-period goals and skated away with 5-2 victory Friday night at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville. The Grrrowl got two goals from Brock Rudunske, and single goals from Brad Bonello, Tim Sestito, and John Snowden. Greenville goalie Cam Ellsworth turned aside 20 Charlotte shots to earn his 11th win of the season.

Checkers goalie Jeff Glass deserved a better fate, taking the loss with 24 saves. A deflection, a power-play goal and little support from his teammates blurred what really was an excellent performance by the rookie goalie. Charlotte got its two goals from Mike Bayrack and Bruce Graham.

The loss dropped the Checkers record against Greenville to 1-3-3 in the ten-game season series, and saw their overall road record fall under .500 at 12-13-2.

"Our guys didn't play as a team at all tonight," fumed Checkers coach Derek Wilkinson. "We had way to much individual play, and our performance embarrassed our goalie who stood on his head. You would think that our team would be trying to prepare itself for the playoffs, but that sure wasn't the case tonight."

Three minutes twenty three seconds into the game an apparent harmless shot deflected off of defenseman Jake Ortmeyer and by Glass for a 1-0 Greenville lead. Four minutes later Rudenske picked up a loose puck in close and rammed home his 24th of the season for a 2-0 Greenville advantage. Two more goals by the Grrrowl's Sestito and Snowden, the latter on the power play, finished the first-period scoring giving Greenville a 4-0 lead after the first 20 minutes.

Charlotte finally lit the lamp early in the second period at 4:46, as Bayrack fired home a rebound of a Dusty Jamieson shot to slice the Grrrowl lead to 4-1. Bayrack's strike was the only goal of the period, as the Checkers were only able to muster 13 shots through two periods.

The Checkers cut the Greenville lead to 4-2 midway through the final period on Graham's goal. But the Grrrowl came right back with Rudenske's second of the game four minutes later to extinguish any chance of a Charlotte comeback.

The Checkers record fell to 27-23-5 for 59 points, while Greenville raised its record to 32-17-3 for 67 points. Charlotte will continue its three-game road trip Sunday afternoon in Charleston when they'll meet the Stingrays at 3:00 p.m.

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