Charlotte’s hottest scorer heading into the game, rookie Andrew Poturalski, opened up the scoring less than six minutes in by pouncing on a rebound in front to put his team on top. Veteran newcomer Patrick Dwyer quickly followed suit, carrying the puck from the corner with an impressive individual effort and sliding it under goalie Steve Michalek’s outstretched leg to double the lead just 15 seconds later. The scoring flurry wasn’t over, however, as Keegan Lowe launched a cannon of a shot from the point moments later for the Checkers’ third goal in a 56-second span.
That spelled the end of the night for Michalek, but his replacement, Alex Stalock, couldn’t keep the surging Checkers at bay. Streaking in off a neutral zone turnover, Poturalski knifed a backhander into the top corner for his second goal of the period and fourth in three games. The Wild would find the board shortly after thanks to a Mario Lucia shot, but Checkers captain Derek Ryan came through with a late power-play strike to push Charlotte to a substantial 5-1 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow night in a rematch as the Checkers will look to secure their first winning streak of the season and return to a .500 record.
