Hartford Ends Checkers' Five-game Win Streak

The Checkers stumbled in the first of their midweek tilts against Hartford, falling 5-2 to snap their winning streak.

Hartford took control in the first with the opening strike, then pushed their lead out to three goals by the time the second intermission rolled around. The Checkers were finally able to break the ice in the third, though, as Jack Studnicka lit the lamp 67 seconds in and then again seven minutes later to pull the home team within one.

The rally wouldn’t proceed any further, however. Hartford punched back later in the frame with a pair of goals less than a minute apart, and that would prove to be enough as regulation ticked down on the lopsided Charlotte loss.

QUOTES

Coach Geordie Kinnear on the game
There was not a lot of energy, to be quite honest, within the group. We’ve talked about that. Not every game are we going to have a ton of energy, and when you don’t have the energy it needs to look a certain way, and it definitely didn’t look that way. In the third period we started skating more and making more plays, and obviously got a couple of good goals to get it back to close. You win the ones you’re supposed to win and you lose the ones you’re supposed to and it usually equals out. We weren’t supposed to win that game tonight with the way we played.

Kinnear on trying to get the team energized throughout the game
You try different things, and some worked and some didn’t. As much as we didn’t have the energy, I don’t think that anyone, including myself, can like the performance today. Those are going to happen, and it’s all in how you respond. You really like the third period to kind of get the belief, because I don’t think we’ve come back from three goals before. We got it close, but not enough. It wasn’t good enough in the first two periods. We didn’t have enough people going, and again I fall in that category too.

Kinnear on Jack Studnicka scoring shorthanded for the second consecutive game
It's how we kill. Obviously he’s been a really good penalty killer at our level. It was a big goal and I’m glad we got the rest of the kill, but we wanted to see that third one go in. You can’t be satisfied.

NOTES

Tonight snapped a five-game winning streak for Charlotte … The Checkers had their home shutout streak snapped at 237:02 - the second longest such streak in AHL regular-season history … This was Studnicka’s first multi-goal game of the season … The Checkers have shorthanded goals in back-to-back games … Ludvig Jansson, Mitch Vande Sompel, Colton Huard, Hunter St. Martin, Gracyn Sawchyn, Wilmer Skoog and Louis Domingue were the extras for Charlotte.