Checkers coach Ryan Warsofsky finally seeing his defending AHL champs turn the corner
Charlotte Checkers’ coach Ryan Warsofsky says he saw signs last weekend that his team finally might be turning the corner.
The Checkers have been mediocre through the first six weeks of the American Hockey League season — splitting a pair of games over the first five weekends and going 0-2 on the sixth.
The result is a 5-7 record (one of the losses was in a shootout), with Charlotte sitting near the bottom of the standings.
But last weekend in a pair of games against Springfield, the Checkers showed some of the power they used last season en route to the Calder Cup championship.
Charlotte beat Springfield, 2-1, on Friday night, with goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic looking like the player who was AHL Goaltender of the Year last season; and then dropped a 4-3 overtime decision Saturday to Springfield. The Checkers were 54 seconds away from winning the Saturday game 3-2 in regulation.
“I think you could probably say it’s a step in the right direction for our work ethic,” Warsofsky said after Saturday’s game. “But if we want to do great things, we have to learn from this so it doesn’t happen again.
“That’s really the bottom line.”
Springfield’s Brady Keeper game-tying goal in the third period Saturday.
Checkers’ forward Max McCormick said the key is how much Charlotte learned from the end of Saturday’s game.
“You’ve got to learn from that last minute, mature from it, and be able to hang on to those leads in the future, because those points are big at the end of the season,” McCormick said.
The Checkers will try to put what they’ve learned to work over the next two weeks with a five-game road trip.
Here’s a look at last weekend’s games, the standings, and what lies ahead:
Friday: The Checkers treated a home-ice crowd to a 2-1 victory over Springfield. Colin Markison scored the winning goal on a breakaway with five minutes left. Nedeljkovic, playing his third straight strong game, got his first victory of the season with 21 saves.
Saturday: McCormick had a goal and an assist, and Julien Gauthier scored his fifth goal of the season, but Daniel Audette’s goal in overtime won it 4-3 for Springfield.
The standings: The Checkers are seventh of eight teams in the AHL’s Atlantic Division and 15th of 16 teams in the Eastern Conference. First in the Atlantic is the Hartford Wolf Pack, which is off to a 10-1 start — similar to how the Checkers started in their championship season a year ago.
What’s ahead: Charlotte plays Friday and Saturday at Hershey, then has road games Nov. 20 and 22 at Lehigh Valley and Nov. 23 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Checkers return home for four games at Bojangles Coliseum on Thanksgiving week.
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
