ECHL Charlotte Checkers

Checkers keep rolling with 4-1 win

Published on February 8, 2004 under ECHL (ECHL)
Charlotte Checkers News Release


(Charlotte, North Carolina – Sunday, February 8 ) The Charlotte Checkers gave Coach Derek Wilkinson a nice present before his leap into fatherhood begins Monday, as they triumphed 4-1 over the Augusta Lynx Sunday afternoon at Cricket Arena. Wilkinson's wife Terri will deliver the couple's first child on Monday, with the head coach heading to the hospital shortly after Sunday's victory.

The Checkers got goals from four different players including Lucas Lawson, Blaz Emersic, Richard Keyes and Marc St. Jean, while Scott Meyer won his fourth straight game in goal making 20 saves. Mike Wirll saw his ECHL-best six-game goal scoring streak come to an end Sunday, but the rookie did get an assist on the St. Jean goal in helping the Checkers to the win. Charlotte has gone 5-1-1 in its last seven games and is clearly challenging for a playoff spot in the Southern Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference.

"It took us a while to get going today but we kept doing the little things and eventually took over the game," remarked Checkers Coach Derek Wilkinson. "Augusta is a well-coached, hard-working team. Scott Meyer played great again today and kept us in it in the first period when we had to kill off so many penalties."

Augusta scored first as Jonathan Gagnon made a nice move to get around the Checkers defense and then deked Meyer at 13:23 of the first period for a 1-0 lead for the Lynx. With just 17 seconds left in the period Lawson tied the game for Charlotte at 1-1 with a power-play goal.

In the second period Charlotte took the lead for good with just 3:26 gone when Emersic's breakaway beat Lynx goalie Will Hamele for a 2-1 Checkers advantage. Taking the 2-1 lead into the final period, the Checkers got two more goals to win going away. Keyes tally at 8:15 was followed by St. Jean's goal for a pair of goals in 24 seconds to ice the game away for the 4-1 final.

The win was the Checkers second straight and improved their Cricket Arena record to 5-1-1 in their last seven tries on home ice. The Checkers are now 24-19-6 for 54 points while the Lynx slipped to 19-24-4 for 42 points. Charlotte is off until Friday when they'll meet the South Carolina Stingrays in Charleston. The Checkers return to Cricket Arena the following night, Saturday, when they'll host the Stingrays to close out the seven-game season series with South Carolina. Next Sunday afternoon the Checkers are also home to host Roanoke at 3:00 p.m.

All road games can be heard over the Internet and on the telephone on TEAMLINE. Fans can log onto the Checkers web site at www.gocheckers.com for complete connection instructions.

CHECKERS TICKETS: All regular season individual game tickets are on sale, and may be purchased at the Cricket Arena Box Office, the Charlotte Coliseum Box Office, and all Ticketmaster locations. Tickets may also be purchased by phone by using a credit card and calling Ticketmaster at (704) 522-6500, and through the Internet at www.ticketmaster.com.

Individual game tickets for the 2003-04 season are priced at $7.00 for balcony seats, $10.00 for end mezzanine seats, $12.00 for side mezzanine seats, $15.00 for circle seats, and $20.00 for box seats.

Mini plans and group tickets remain on sale through the Checkers office. Further information can be obtained by calling the Checkers office at (704) 342-4423.

All road games can be heard over the Internet and on the telephone on TEAMLINE. Fans can log onto the Checkers web site at www.gocheckers.com for complete connection instructions.

Check out the Charlotte Checkers Statistics

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ECHL Stories from February 8, 2004


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