Four-goal Gwinnett first period foils Checkers 5-2
December 11, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Charlotte Checkers News Release
Duluth, Georgia - Friday, December 10: The Charlotte Checkers had one bad five-minute stretch ruin the first game of a season-long, eight-game road trip. A three-goal outburst by the Gladiators in a 54 second span in the first period propelled Gwinnett to a 5-2 win over the Checkers Friday night before 8,246 in Duluth, Georgia. All of Gwinnett's leading scorers lit the lamp in the first 20 minutes with Chris Durno netting a pair while Cam Brown, Mike Vigilante and Brad Engelhardt scored single goals. Brandon Cullen and Lee Falardeau had the Checkers goals and Charlotte goalie Alex Westlund was the hard-luck loser in net with 39 saves.
"We came out and did what we wanted to do in the first ten minutes," commented Charlotte coach Derek Wilkinson. "We got the lead and then went through a bad, five-minute stretch where we were soft and they dominated. Their top line dominated our top line and that shouldn't happen. We definitely have some things we have to work on."
The Checkers took a 1-0 lead just two minutes and fifty three seconds into the game as Cullen tipped in Curtis Menzul's shot from the point for his second goal of the season. Charlotte got a power-play chance at 4:56 of the first period and a chance to grab a 2-0 lead, but the Gladiators killed off the Checkers first extra-man advantage of the game. Charlotte played even with Gwinnett through the middle of the period before the Gladiators began a big surge.
Gwinnett dominated by scoring four, unanswered goals, three in a 54 second span, to take a 4-1 lead to the locker room after 20 minutes. Durno, Brown and Vigilante scored goals in a 54 second span beginning at 12:44 of the period. Durno scored his second of the game at 16:52.
The Checkers got back into the game early in the second period as Falardeau knocked home his own rebound at 2:30 to cut the Gladiators lead to 4-2. Ryan Cuthbert notched the lone assist. Still Charlotte could only muster five shots on goal in the period and trailed 4-2 after forty minutes.
In then third period the Gladiators got an insurance goal at 8:03 as Engelhardt scored his 14th of the season for the 5-2 final. The Gladiators outshot the Checkers 44-26 for the game.
The Checkers record fell to 12-6-2 for 26 points with Gwinnett improving to 12-4-4 for 28 points. Saturday night the Checkers will continue their eight-game road trip when they'll play the Lynx in Augusta at 7:35 p.m.
Following the eight-game road trip, the Checkers will return home to Cricket Arena to host Augusta on Sunday, December 26 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are available at the Cricket Arena Box office, the Charlotte Coliseum box office, and at all Ticketmaster locations. Tickets may also be purchased on line at _www.ticketmaster.com_ (http://www.ticketmaster.com/) or by phone at (704) 522-6500. Group, season and mini-plan tickets cab be purchased through the Charlotte Checkers office by calling (704) 342-4ICE.
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