The visiting Wolf Pack broke the ice with a quick two-goal burst late in the first period, then added to their advantage with another strike with under five minutes left in the middle frame.
That would be more than enough for the visitors, as the Checkers couldn’t quite get their offense off the ground. Charlotte put 34 shots on goal - as well as a penalty shot opportunity for John Leonard - but couldn't solve Dylan Garand, who blanked the Checkers and picked up a weekend sweep for Hartford.
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameAn honest effort. They were opportunistic. We made a couple of mistakes in the first and they capitalized. They’ve got some elite scorers. The schedule caught up to us a little bit and the lineup with a lot of guys in and out. A tough go of it, but we move on and continue to get better.
Kinnear on what he would have liked to see in the third period
Break through, but guys spent a lot of energy in the last two games and there wasn’t a lot left in the tank. Again, we’re going here on a long period of time where we’ve lost a lot of players. I’m not going to criticize the group, at all, because they’ve given me everything they had for the last little while. Again, the schedule has caught up to us a little bit and we’re obviously missing a lot of pieces. I’m definitely not criticizing the group.
Kinnear on if there’s any frustration in the room
There’s no frustration at all. An honest effort and worked extremely hard. Yeah, we made some mistakes, but I’m not going down that road and criticizing a group that’s played extremely well. We’ve been through, I don’t even know how many players and how many injuries we have. I think we have eight and probably five of those are season ending. You’re not going to catch me today criticizing the group’s effort at all.
Kinnear on the key to an upcoming road trip to Iowa and Milwaukee
Energy is going to be important. It’s a quick turnaround and we’re going tough travel, but you look at these points in the season, we’ve talked all the way along about being tough. If you look at the Florida Panthers and how they won the Stanley Cup, it was the toughness, the mental toughness. The year before where they had to go with all the injuries and they had to go through Boston, it’s all part of the process. We have a lot of young players that have to learn. It’s a hard league, we’re in January where a lot of those guys have played a lot of games and a lot of minutes. Dig in, push through and continue to get better. We’re definitely not letting our foot off the gas, but energy will be important on the road trip.
Kinnear on if Justin Sourdif’s absence was due to injury
Yep. Another guy that’s gone down for a little bit, and then losing (Marek Alscher). The pile just adds up, but it builds character along the way. When we get guys back, we should have lots of energy.
