CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Johnstown Chiefs were defeated by the Charlotte Checkers 7-4 on Friday evening at the Time Warner Cable Arena to begin their three-game southern road trip.
The loss dropped Johnstown’s record to 3-7-3 on the season.
The Chiefs’ offense was on track early as it cracked Miika Wiikman’s guard just 1:50 into the game.
Working on the power play, Ryan Menei took the feed on a slap-pass from Jarrett Konkle and quickly buried it for his second of the season.
Former Chief Kenny Roche tied it for Charlotte at 3:35, and then Matt Schepke gave the home team its first lead at 6:43 with a shorthanded marker.
Johnstown’s power play came right back with an answer, this time with Jim McKenzie netting his fourth of the season at 7:21.
Connor Shields and Troy Schwab provided the helpers.
Johnstown’s power play continued to look unstoppable in the second period as it provided two more tallies.
At 5:16, Shields took a feed from Konkle, split the Checkers’ defense and proceeded to undress Wiikman with a deke to the backhand and slide it into the net.
Konkle followed that with his third point of the night with his own power play goal. It was a high, hard wrist shot that sailed over Wiikman’s blocker at 17:41.
The Chiefs’ power play goals were wrapped around Roche’s second of the game for Charlotte at 13:41.
In the third period, Charlotte’s offense proved to be too strong for the Chiefs to overcome.
Schepke scored twice, at 5:38 and 18:19 to pick up the hat trick, while Leveille added his ninth of the season at 10:17.
The true turning point of the game came when Wiikman turned aside McKenzie on a shorthanded breakaway with about seven minutes left in regulation.
Kris Mayotte made 30 saves in the loss.
The Chiefs went 4-for-8 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Chiefs
Checkers, Schepke top Chiefs
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The final seconds ticked down in the Johnstown Chiefs’ ECHL existence on Saturday night, and even though the hometown team trailed by four goals, a standing-room-only crowd began chanting, “Let’s go Chiefs.”
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Twenty-two ECHL seasons and 1,518 regular-season games.
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