Charlotte Checkers coach and players know why the team is playing better
It’s taken a while, but there are signs that the Charlotte Checkers might be turning into a team its fans might be a bit happier with.
The Checkers’ head coach and some of the players think they’ve figured out what’s caused a championship hangover during the first two months of the American Hockey League season.
The problem, they say, is a lack of intensity during the entire 60 minutes of a hockey game.
“It’s been an issue for us the whole year in our losses,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said Saturday after the Checkers blew a 3-1 lead and lost 5-4 to Syracuse at Bojangles’ Coliseum.
But Saturday’s loss has been an outlier in the past two weeks. Before that game, the Checkers won two in a row and bounced back from the Syracuse loss with a 6-3 pounding over Hartford on Tuesday night.
As a result, Charlotte has climbed to sixth place in the eight-team AHL Atlantic Division, after sitting seventh or eighth in October and November. While the Checkers haven’t been as dominant as they were last year in their Calder Cup run, things are looking up.
In Friday night’s 3-2 victory over Syracuse, Charlotte rallied from a 2-1 deficit.
“The mindset that we had in the second and third periods has to be in our DNA, and it has to be in our DNA for 60 minutes,” Warsofsky said. “It’s really hard work to mentally and physically be focused for it, and move your feet and put the effort into it, but if we want to go places this season, that’s how we have to play.
“I think the guys are starting to figure that out.”
Checkers’ goal-scoring leader Julien Gauthier, who has split time this season between Charlotte and the Carolina Hurricanes, said the Checkers’ run of five straight goals Tuesday night is a positive sign.
“It felt like last year,” Guathier says. “We’ve struggled this season, but we’re getting better every day, and that’s the key.”
Checkers last week and what’s ahead
Friday: The come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Syracuse opened a six-game home stand for Charlotte. Before a crowd of 6,335 at Bojangles’ Coliseum, Chase Priskie and Morgan Geekie scored third-period goals for Charlotte, and goalkeeper Alex Nedeljkovic made several big saves.
Saturday: A crowd of 7,759 watched the Checkers blow a 3-1 lead and fall 5-4 to Syracuse. The Crunch scored the winning goal with about three minutes left.
Tuesday: Charlotte trailed Hartford 1-0 early but scored five in a row and beat the Wolf Pack 6-3. A crowd of 4,248 at Bojangles’ Coliseum saw Gauthier score two goals and Fredrik Claesson get a goal and two assists.
Week ahead: Charlotte’s home stand finishes with games Wednesday (7 p.m.) against Hartford, and Saturday (6 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) against Lehigh Valley. If you want to see the Checkers, you’d best get there this week. After Sunday, Charlotte has seven straight games on the road and is gone for more than three weeks.
Personnel changes: Defenseman Kyle Wood was traded to the Detroit Red Wings organization by the Hurricanes, in return for defenseman Oliwer Kaski, a standout the past two seasons in Finland’s top pro league. Forward Hunter Shinkaruk was released from his Checkers’ contract to play in Russia’s KHL.
The Checkers promoted forward Jacob Pritchard from the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, where he had scored four goals in 13 games.
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle