Checkers Suffer Second Consecutive Loss to Toronto

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Author: Nicholas Niedzielski Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Director of Communications Nicholas Niedzielski joined the Checkers in the summer of 2014. A Texas native, he previously worked for the AHL's Texas Stars.

Charlotte’s home stand ended with a dud as the Checkers dropped their rematch with Toronto 5-0.The Checkers were only able to muster 20 shots on goal through the 60 minutes of play and saw all of them denied by Marlies netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo, including going scoreless on their six man advantages.The Marlies opened the scoring midway through the first thanks to former Checker Josh Jooris, then blew things open with goals on back-to-back odd-man rushes early in the middle frame. The visitors kept rolling from there, registering as many shots over the second and third periods as the Checkers did over the entirety of the game, and tacked on another pair to clinch the lopsided victory.I thought it was a bad game by us by far. They out-skated us, out-worked us, were mentally stronger than we were and we were on our heels the whole game. We just weren’t ready.We looked rattled. They’re more experienced than us and they took their experience and they used it against us. We got rattled at times, we weren’t making the right plays, we weren’t sacrificing our bodies and we weren’t strong on the puck. Our power play on the home stand here has been terrible. It was 3-for-35, not good enough. I’m going to make some changes on it this week with personal and we’re going to get the right people that want to be on the power play.Just mental mistakes. We talk about it and talk about it and then we do it three times in a row. We just got schooled by the champions. If you want to be the champion you’ve got to beat them. We didn’t play good enough against them and they schooled us.They definitely have a good team, a lot of good players and they know what it takes to win. To see their work ethic on a back-to-back with a tough Sunday game, they brought it tonight. We’ve got to take that, learn from it and move on.This was only the fourth time this season that the Checkers have gone consecutive games without a win. They have never gone three consecutive games without winning … Toronto is now 4-0-0 all-time at Bojangles’ Coliseum … The Marlies are one of only two teams (Bridgeport) to beat the Checkers more than once this season and the only team to do so three times … This tied the Checkers’ most lopsided loss of the season (6-1 vs. Bridgeport on Dec. 21) … This was the Checkers’ second time being shut out this season (Oct. 20 vs. Hershey) … Forward Cliff Pu missed the game due to injury … Forward Steven Lorentz and defenseman Dennis Robertson were healthy extras.The Checkers will return to the road next weekend for a two-game trip starting Friday in Providence.