ECHL Charlotte Checkers

Checkers win third straight with 4-3 overtime triumph at Gwinnett

Published on November 19, 2004 under ECHL (ECHL)
Charlotte Checkers News Release


Duluth, Georgia - The Charlotte Checkers won another game the hard way. After giving up a three-goal lead and yielding a whopping 57 shots, Charlotte prevailed again. Eddie Pershin's goal with just 1:52 left in sudden-death overtime gave the Checkers a 4-3 win, The triumph was the team's third straight and fourth in their last five games. Charlotte led 3-0 in the second period before Gwinnett score three, unanswered goals, the last one coming with just 1:03 left in regulation to tie the game at 3-3. The big hero for the Checkers was goalie Kelly Guard who remained undefeated at 6-0-0 while making 54 saves, including numerous spectacular stops. The win also allowed the Checkers to improve to 9-2-1 for 19 points while boosting their road record to a sparkling 6-1-0. "Goaltending won the game for us tonight," commented Charlotte coach Derek Wilkinson. "Kelly Guard was absolutely spectacular. We knew that with our rough schedule this week we would need our goalies to win a few games for us and that's exactly what has happened. Our good conditioning also proved to be a big factor tonight, and we can compliment our players and our athletic trainer / strength and conditioning expert Jim Devine for that." Charlotte got on the board first at 10:01 of the first period as Dwight Helminen passed perfectly to Jason Dawe who scored his fourth goal of the season for a 1-0 Checkers lead after 20 minutes. The Checkers increased their lead to 3-0 with a pair of second period goals. Just 1:47 into the period Mike Harder took a pretty pass from Dusty Jamieson and notched his sixth goal of the season, while also improving his ECHL and team-leading point streak to 12 games. Lee Falardeau beat Gwinnett goalie T.J. Aceti top shelf at 8:09 for the three-goal cushion. It appeared that the Checkers would go to the locker room after two periods with the 3-0 lead, but the Gladiators Brett Engelhardt scored with just 27 seconds left to trim the Checkers lead to two goals through 40 minutes. The Gladiators came at the Checkers in waves in the third period with 26 shots. Charlotte held on until late in the final period when Gwinnett finally broke through, scoring two goals in a 1:30 span to tie the game. Jeff Campbell 's blast beat Guard at 17:14 to cut the Checkers lead to 3-2, before Cam Brown tied the game at 18:30. The Gladiators had several point-blank shots at Guard in the final 1:30 of the third period, but the rookie netminder held the fort to send the game into overtime where Pershin's goal won it for the Checkers. The win allowed Charlotte to build a four-point hold on first place in the Eastern Division on the ECHL's American Conference with a record of 9-2-1 for 19 points. Gwinnett dropped to 5-4-3 for 13 points. The Checkers return home Saturday night, closing out their four games in five nights schedule, to host the Greenville Grrrowl at Cricket Arena at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available now through the Charlotte Checkers office by calling (704) 342-4ICE, through all TicketMaster locations, or on line through _www.TicketMaster.com.

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ECHL Stories from November 19, 2004


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