With goalkeeper ill, Charlotte Checkers’ broadcaster gets a day on the bench

Jason Shaya was skating with several injured Charlotte Checkers players Sunday morning when coach Mike Vellucci approached him and asked a favor.

Checkers’ starting goalkeeper Alex Nedejlkovic was ill, Vellucci explained, and he wondered if Shaya would fill in as emergency backup netminder for Sunday afternoon’s game against the Providence Bruins.

Shaya is an amateur hockey player who has spent the past 10 years as Checkers’ broadcaster. Occasionally, he filled the role of goalie at practice when the team’s two goalkeepers were unavailable, but broadcasting is his career.

“I said my concern was obviously the broadcast, because I’m a broadcaster,” Shaya said. But the team lined up Derek Wilkinson and Jamie Black from the front office to broadcast the game, so Shaya said he’d fill in.

Shaya wasn’t needed Sunday, as backup goalie Jeremy Smith played in the Checkers’ 2-1 shootout loss to the Bruins.

“The big thing for me was to stay out of the way,” Shaya said, in a report posted on the team’s website. “I don’t want to be a distraction.”

Sunday’s loss was the Checkers’ first overtime game of the season. The game featured a Teddy Bear Toss, and fans tossed about 1,200 bears on the ice, for distribution to children in need.

Sunday’s loss capped a 2-2 week for Charlotte, who slipped to fourth place (behind Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Lehigh Valley and the Bruins) in the American Hockey League’s Atlantic Division standings.

Tuesday: The Checkers snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Belleville Senators 4-2. Aleksei Saarela scored two goals.

Wednesday: Belleville came back and beat the Checkers 5-2, getting two goals from Max Reinhart.

Saturday: The Checkers’ offense erupted in an 8-2 rout of Springfield. Eight different players score a goal, and Sergey Tolchinsky tallied a goal and two assists.

This week: The Checkers, who have played 12 games in 21 days, get a bit of a rest. They are home Friday (7:15 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) against the Springfield Thunderbirds, farm team of the Florida Panthers.

This story was originally published November 26, 2017 at 6:42 PM with the headline "With goalkeeper ill, Charlotte Checkers’ broadcaster gets a day on the bench."