The Checkers are looking to take their winning ways on the road as they embark on a three-game trek through the state of Pennsylvania.
THE MATCHUP
- Record/Standings
- CLT - 11-5-1-2 (4th Atlantic)
- WBS - 12-6-1-0 (2nd Atlantic)
- Power Play / Penalty Kill
- CLT - 35.1% (1st) / 84.0% (t-9th)
- WBS - 22.5% (t-22nd) / 83.1% (t-13th)
- Offense / Defense
- CLT - 3.84 GF/Game (1st) / 2.89 GA/Game (13th)
- WBS - 3.32 GF/Game (8th) / 2.84 GA/Game (11th)
- Head-To-Head
- 1-0-0-0
THE STORYLINES
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
The Checkers are hoping this trip fares better in the standings than their last road swing. That was a five-game road trip that saw Charlotte go 1-2-1-1 against a trio of Atlantic Division opponents. A positive spin of that trip, though, is that the Checkers picked up a point in the standings in the final three contests - giving them something to build off of going into this run.On the other side of the ice, the Penguins are 3-2-0-0 in their last five home contests and sport the same 7-3-0-0 record on home ice as the Checkers.
AGAINST THE PENS
The Checkers and Penguins enter Wednesday’s contest with an identical 25 standings points through 19 games - courtesy of their 12 wins the Pens hold second place in the Atlantic, while the Checkers come in at fourth place with 11 wins.The similarities don’t end there. Charlotte and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton both boast top 10 offenses, their goals-against averages are separated by .05 percentage points, they both rank in the top three in power-play success and have penalty kills that differ by less than one percentage point.
The two sides have met once before this season, in the campaign’s opening contest. The Checkers came out on top in a wild 7-6 romp thanks to a hat trick from Aidan McDonough and four straight goals in the third period.
BOOM OR BUST
Each of Charlotte’s last three contests have been shutouts - two of those have seen the Checkers on the right side of the blank sheet, while the most recent outing marked the first time that they have been blanked this season.The Checkers have three shutouts under their belt this season - two from Ken Appleby and one from Cooper Black - as do the Penguins - including a pair from Filip Larsson and one from Joel Blomqvist.
DEPTH RISES
The Checkers have been without some big names due to injury - including two of their top five scorers in Aidan McDonough and Ryan McAllister, their second-highest scoring blue liner Mike Benning, Justin Sourdif and more. In their absence the Checkers have needed to lean on their depth scoring, and those skaters have delivered as of late. Ben Steeves and Riese Gaber each notched three-point efforts in last weekend’s win over Rochester, their frequent linemate Patrick Giles has points in two of the last three games and Oliver Okuliar has three points in his last five games.THE QUOTES
Head coach Geordie Kinnear after Saturday's game on his team's path forward"We’re going to take lessons from the game before this game and continue to move forward. We’ll get a practice here and then we get on the road. Obviously to some tough buildings and we have guys banged up, but guys have to continue to step up and be consistent."
THE INFO
Wednesday's game - along with every game this season - are available via the new AHLTV on FloHockey! Click here to get a subscription.Additionally, Mellow Mushroom in Uptown is the official road game destination, as they will be showing every road game throughout the season!
For the full list of broadcast options, click here!
