The best-of-three first round series will now be settled in a winner-take-all Game 3 Sunday afternoon at Bojangles Coliseum.
The overtime saw the two sides trade chances until a wild sequence midway through the frame, when several broken sticks led to an extended scramble in the Charlotte zone and ultimately ended with the puck in the Checkers net.
Momentum went back-and-forth between Charlotte and Hartford throughout regulation. Gerry Mayhew got the home team on the board quickly, but a converted man advantage in the second pulled the Wolf Pack back even. Charlotte’s power play had a quick response, though, as Justin Sourdif hammered in a goal minutes later to reclaim the Checkers’ lead heading into the second intermission.
The Wolf Pack had one more answer in them, however, as an early strike in the third knotted things up and set the stage for their overtime victory.
QUOTES
It’s a good hockey game. It’s a playoff hockey game that we lost in overtime. As I said yesterday, you have to prepare for a long series. I know it’s short, but it’s part of the learning process to win in the end – you’ve got to be prepared to play the full amount of games. We’ll be to go.
Kinnear on the physical nature of the series
There’s a lot of young guys. Obviously Samo, after every whistle they’re pushing and shoving him a little bit. That’s the way the games played, and honestly that’s what makes our game so great. I said it yesterday, it’s what makes the playoffs great and what makes hockey so great is those one-on-one battles and you’ve got to battle through. We’ve got to battle through tomorrow. It’s winner take all tomorrow and a fun game to be part of.
Kinnear on playing Hartford
It's best two out of three but we’ve seen them six times in the last month and a half it seems like. There’s some animosity there, and being a competitive guy, it’s great because it brings out the best in you when you have someone across from you that’s competitive too. It’ll be a fun game.
Kinnear on getting to play Game 3 at home
Charlotte is great. You look back at the outdoor game and the support we got there and all the way through, it’s a great building to play in and a great atmosphere. We’re looking forward to it.
Kinnear on the overtime period
I thought we had some good looks, and you have to give their goalie credit because he made some nice saves. Then, I don’t know. Sticks were breaking all over the place and it ended up costing us there because we didn’t have a stick for a little bit. Credit to them.
Forward Zac Dalpe on tomorrow’s game
You prepare for a long series and I guess tomorrow we both have our backs against the wall. We’ve got to come out swinging I guess. I liked pockets of our game, but that’s just this time of year. All the little things are so important and they got the best of those tonight.
Dalpe on the playing again so quickly
That’s the beauty of the American League. You don’t have a day in between to think about it. You come back out tomorrow, put your skates on and I guess try to out-will the other team and go from there. There’s still a lot of confidence in that room. Obviously it stings right now, but you’ve got to go through some of this in a playoff run to kind of learn from it. Hopefully we learn from that and come back tomorrow.
Dalpe on what to improve upon for tomorrow
I’d have to watch the video. I think just a heightened awareness of the little plays, getting pucks out and taking the body a little bit more. That’s important this time of year. Just hone in those and come back tomorrow.
