Weekly Report: February 15, 2016

The Checkers’ slide continued with a rough home stand coming to a winless end last week.

The team will look to shake their way out of this spiral with a road trip through the Central Division, starting tomorrow in Milwuakee.

Week in Review

San Antonio 5, Checkers 2

The Checkers kicked off the week by welcoming the slumping Rampage to town. San Antonio found a spark from their young guns, however, and used a three-goal second period to scorch Charlotte 5-2. The Checkers’ defense did their best to keep the Rampage at bay, holding the visitors to just 19 shots on the game, but starter Daniel Altshuller had a rough outing, surrendering four goals on 13 shots before being replaced by Drew MacIntyre. Full recap

San Antonio 3, Checkers 2

The rematch with the Rampage saw a much improved effort from Charlotte. The two sides exchanged goals in the first to emerge deadlocked at two after 20 minutes. Things settled down after that, however, and there would be only one more goal scored, a quick strike in the second from Marc-Andre Cliche that would go down as the game winner. The Checkers attempted to mount a comeback in the third, but couldn’t solve Rampage netminder Roman Will, who earned his second consecutive between the pipes. Full recap

San Diego 3, Checkers 2 (OT)

The Checkers’ jam-packed week rolled on as they welcomed the San Diego Gulls for the first time ever. The two teams again exchanged goals, with the Gulls taking a 2-1 lead into the second intermission. The Checkers amped up the pressure in the third, outshooting San Diego 10-4, and finally broke through with the tying goal from Brendan Woods in the final two minutes of regulation to send the contest to overtime. They carried that momentum into overtime, creating several early chances, but it was Mike Sgarbossa who earned his team the two points with a tally 90 seconds in. Full recap

San Diego 5, Checkers 4

The next night’s rematch looked like it was going the way of a blowout as the Gulls ran out to a 5-2 lead through 40 minutes. But the Checkers of old made an appearance early in third, with Ryan Murphy notching his second of the night four minutes in followed by a Kyle Hagel rebound tally to pull the home team within one goal with over 13 minutes to play. But things dried up for the Checkers, who only totaled six shots in the frame, and their comeback fell short as the Gulls ran the clock out and escaped with a weekend sweep. Full recap

Three Stars Of The Week

Notables

On The Skids

The Checkers’ franchise-record winless streak now sits at nine games, making it the longest active such streak in the AHL and tying it for the second-longest in the league this season. The only other teams to record nine-game winless streaks are Manitoba and Iowa, the bottom two teams in the AHL standings.

Free Falling

On Jan. 27, the Checkers faced off with the Rockford IceHogs with a chance to take sole possession of first place in the Central Division from them with a win. But Charlotte lost that game and have since fallen to their current spot of fifth in the division.

The good news for the Checkers, however, is that due to the new nature of the standings, they could still qualify for the playoffs at this position. While the top four teams in each division make the playoffs, if the fifth-place team in the Central or Pacific have a better winning percentage than the fourth-place team in the other conference, they would take their spot in the playoffs. As it stands, the Checkers would qualify for that crossover spot.

Offensive Issues

Saturday’s four-goal outburst was just the second time in their last nine games that the Checkers have scored more than two goals in a game. By comparison, in the 18 games immediately prior to this stretch, they hit the three-goals or more mark 16 times.

Powering Back Up

After a season-worst three-game drought, the Checkers have notched a power-play goal in each of their last five contests. They are 6-for-26 (23.1%) on the man advantage over that stretch, and are still the second-ranked power-play unit in the AHL with a 22.3% on the season.

No Love In February

The Checkers have yet to record a win in February this year, starting off 0-5-1. It marks the third consecutive season in which they have hit a rough patch during the month, as they have a combined 8-17-3 record over the last three Februarys.

Ranks

• Kyle Hagel is tied for second in the AHL in major penalties (11)
• Daniel Altshuller is tied for 14th in the AHL in goals against average (2.55)
• Trevor Carrick is tied for eighth among AHL defensemen in scoring (30)
• Jake Chelios ranks 18th among AHL defensemen in scoring (24)
• Mike Cornell is tied for fifth among AHL defensemen in major penalties (8)

Injuries

• Danny Biega missed 17 games starting 1/8
• Justin Shugg missed seven games from 1/27-2/10
• Zach Boychuk missed one game starting 1/30
• Ethan Werek missed on game starting 1/30

Milestones

• Brendan Woods scored his 50th pro point in his 150th AHL game on 2/12

Transactions

Incoming

• February 9 - (LW) Carter Sandlak recalled by Charlotte
• February 8 – (D) Ryan Murphy assigned to Charlotte

Outgoing

• Febraury 9 - (D) Sean Escobedo released from PTO

Coming Up

By the Numbers

Team Statistics
CATEGORY	RECORD	AHL RANK	LAST WEEK
Power play	22.3%	2nd	2nd
Penalty kill	82.1%	19th	14th
Goals per game	2.98	t-9th	t-6th
Shots per game	30.12	12th	11th
Goals allowed per game	3.06	21st	19th
Shots allowed per game	28.94	7th	11th
Penalty minutes per game	14.39	15th	17th

Team Leaders
CATEGORY	LEADER(S)
Points	Derek Ryan (37), Trevor Carrick (30), Brock McGinn (26)
Goals	Derek Ryan (14), Brock McGinn (13), Brody Sutter (10)
Assists	Derek Ryan (23), Trevor Carrick (21), Jake Chelios (20)
Power play goals	Zach Boychuk, Brock McGinn (6)
Shorthanded goals	Patrick Brown, David Wohlberg, Brody Sutter (1)
Game-winning goals	Derek Ryan, Zach Boychuk (3)
Shots on goal	Zach Boychuk (132), Trevor Carrick (109), Derek Ryan (108)
Penalty minutes	Kyle Hagel (93), Mike Cornell (70), David Wohlberg (53)
Plus/minus	Brendan Woods (+6), Ethan Werek, Danny Biega (+5)
Wins	Drew MacIntyre (10)
Goals-against average	Daniel Altshuller (2.55)
Save percentage	Daniel Altshuller (.913)