The Charlotte Checkers fell behind 2-0 in the first period at Hershey on Sunday afternoon and lost 3-2 to the Bears, a day after winning the season opener 5-2 in the same building. The two American Hockey League clubs split their opening series.
Charlotte outshot Hershey 29-23 but gave the Bears six power plays, and got three of its own.
Tyler Muszelik made 20 saves in his first professional game. The 22-year-old goaltender signed with the Florida Panthers, the NHL club the Checkers are affiliated with, in March after his senior season at the University of Connecticut. "Super proud of him," coach Geordie Kinnear said afterward. "I thought he was outstanding in the game. Gave us a chance to win when, again, the group in front of him didn't have a lot of legs."
How it went
Hershey scored twice in the first period. Eriks Mateiko scored at 10:29, and Petr Sikora scored his first American Hockey League goal at 19:43, in the final minute of the period. Andrew Cristall assisted on both.
Neither team scored in the second. Johnny Beecher got Charlotte on the board at 8:35 of the third on a wraparound, carrying the puck around the back of the net and tucking it in. Josh Dunne answered for Hershey at 10:21, less than two minutes later, and that goal stood up as the winner.
Jack Devine pulled Charlotte within one in the final five minutes with a power-play goal, scored while a Hershey player sat in the penalty box. It was a one-timer, a shot taken straight off a pass, right after a faceoff. He has scored in both games. It was the Checkers' first power-play goal of the season, according to the club.
That goal let Charlotte pull its goaltender for an extra skater. "It's important as a big goal to allow us to be able to pull the goalie," Kinnear said. The Checkers had time in the Hershey end after that, he said, and "the goalie made a great save." Garin Bjorklund finished with 27 saves for Hershey.
Six power plays, six kills
The Checkers killed all six of Hershey's power plays, so none of Hershey's goals came with the man advantage. Through two games, the club says, Charlotte's penalty kill is 8-for-8.
"We want a certain identity," Kinnear said of the penalty kill. "I think we saw it at times."
He also said the team, playing on back-to-back days, still has work to do: "We still have to get in skating shape and get in sync."
Next
Charlotte plays at Providence on Saturday and at Springfield on Sunday, then opens at home on Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. against Hartford at Bojangles Coliseum. The full schedule lists all 72 games.