Checkers vs Everblades - 4/17/07, Playoff Round 2 Game 3

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Checkers Press Release

CHECKERS SEASON ENDS AS FLORIDA EVERBLADES SWEEP SERIES WITH 4-0 SHUTOUT IN GAME 3

The Charlotte Checkers season came to a close Tuesday night at Bobcats Arena, as the Florida Everblades skated away with a 4-0 win to sweep the best-of 5 South Division semi-final series. After dropping the first two games of the series in Fort Myers over the weekend, the Checkers were hopeful of turning things around on their home ice.

http://www.prosportsmedia.com/checkers/news_images/Czech_for_web.jpg

Charlotte was also buoyed Tuesday night with the return of veteran goalie, Alex Westlund, and skillful defenseman, Hannu Pikkarainen from their American Hockley League affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. But in the end it was Florida goalie, Craig Kowalski, who almost single-handedly sent the Everblades to the South Division finals.

Kowalski made 32 saves Tuesday night, many of the spectacular variety, in shutting down a good Checkers effort. A second-period goal by Jonathan Lehun was all Florida would need on this night. Derek Damon and Dustin Johner scored third-period goals, along with Chris Dyment’s empty-net goal with a minute left to seal the win. Westlund, making his first start of the playoffs, made 13 saves in the loss.

The Everblades will go on to meet the winner of the Texas-Gwinnett South Division semi-final series, in the South Division finals. That series is currently tied at 1-1 with game 3 set for Texas on Wednesday.

“They made the most of their opportunities and we just couldn’t,” remarked Charlotte Coach Derek Wilkinson. “It wasn’t from a lack of effort, we just couldn’t finish and they did. He (Florida goalie Craig Kowalski) was solid. He’s a good goaltender, he’s been in the league for a couple of years and he wasn’t going to give us anything tonight.”

Tuesday’s game was the Checkers 11th in the last 17 days dating back to the final week of the regular season. Having to play so many games in such a short period of time may have taken its toll on a Charlotte club that gave a supreme effort, despite the handicap.

Despite the Checkers season coming to an end on Tuesday, there were many positives to the 2006-07 campaign. Charlotte won a franchise second-best 42 games during the regular season, and had numerous players get opportunities at the next level in the American Hockey League. Off the ice, the Checkers averaged nearly 6,000 fans per game in 36 home games, third-best in the 25-team ECHL. The Checkers also had a smooth transistion to first-year owner Michael Kahn, who injected a large dose of enthuasism into the team as evidenced by numerous improvements on and off the ice.

Wilkinson commented on his team’s success this season as well as the campaign coming to an end. “I think we had a heck of a year.” said Wilkinson. “Forty two wins in the regular season is impressive. I’m proud of our effort. I thought we were built for a better run than we were. I thought we’d go a little deeper but we ran up against a great team.”

The Checkers and Everblades played to a scoreless first period. Each team had three power play opportunities in the first stanza, but both goalies hunkered down to keep the goose eggs on the scoreboard.

In the second period the Checkers had numerous, quality scoring chances, but Kowalski made every save to keep Charlotte off the board. With 4:30 left in the second, the Everblades finally broke the scoreless tie with the stanza’s lone goal. Johner’s shot from the right-wing side went wide, deflecting to the left-wing circle. Lehun fired the puck past Westlund and Florida led 1-0 after two periods.

In the third period the Everblades converted a two-on-one break for a 2-0 advantage, as Damon beat Westlund at 7:53. Five minutes later Johner had a breakaway and scored for a 3-0 Florida lead, and storm clouds began to gather on the Checkers season. Charlotte pulled Westlund for a sixth attacker with 2:22 left in a desperate attempt to score. But Dyment’s empty-net goal with a minute to go in the contest sealed the win and the 4-0 final.

ECHL South Division Semi-Finals: (Best-of-Five) (Florida wins series 3-0)
Friday, April 13 – Checkers 2 @ Florida 3
Saturday, April 14 – Checkers 2 @ Florida 7
Tuesday, April 17 – Everblades 4 @ Charlotte 0

OPENING ROUND PLAYOFF SERIES RESULTS: (Best of Three) (Charlotte wins series 2-0)
Monday, April 9 – Augusta 1 @ Charlotte 2 OT
Tuesday, April 10 – Charlotte 3 @ Augusta 2 OT

CHECKERS TUESDAY NIGHT SCRATCHES: Rick Kozak, Daymen Rycroft and Niko Tuomi

ON RECALL TO (AHL) HARTFORD: Chris Holt and Zdenek Bahensky

FOR BOX SCORE CLICK: http://echl.leaguestat.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1848

[babs<3checkers]

EVERBLADES 4, CHECKERS 0
Florida bounces Checkers in 3 (http://www.charlotte.com/323/story/89494.html)
Charlotte's season ends with home shutout in 2nd round of playoffs

CLIFF MEHRTENS
cmehrtens@charlotteobserver.com

The Charlotte Checkers, in 180 playoff minutes against Florida, never led.

It meant a quick dispatch from the ECHL postseason, as the Everblades beat Charlotte 4-0 at Bobcats Arena on Tuesday. Florida swept the best-of-5 South division semifinal 3-0.

"They had a full boat when they came out," Checkers defenseman Jan Vodrazka said. "We can talk about a lot of things, but they were just the better team."

Florida, which will next play the Gwinnett/Texas winner in the division final, had 14 goals from 12 players in the series. It outscored Charlotte 14-4 and didn't allow more than two goals in any game.

Fittingly, the loudspeaker blared the theme from "Mission Impossible" during a Checkers power play early in the third period.

Goalie Craig Kowalski, who beat Charlotte all three games, stopped all 32 shots Tuesday, and 92-of-96 in the series.

"They made the most of their opportunities, and we just couldn't," Checkers coach Derek Wilkinson said. "It wasn't from a lack of effort; we just couldn't finish. We took it to (Kowalski) pretty good, but he was a difference maker."

Charlotte might have been fatigued, based on eight games in 11 days to finish the regular season, followed by a two-game playoff against Augusta last week, while Florida rested.


Florida 0 1 3 -- 4
Charlotte 0 0 0 -- 0

First period--None. Penalties--Slonina, C (hooking), 2:36; Zancanaro, F (boarding), 7:59; Slonina, C (hooking), 10:06; Taylor, F (hooking), 10:56; Zancanaro, F (slashing), 12:48; Vinz, C (interference), 17:51; Peterson, F (hooking), 19:57.

Second period--1, Florida, Lehun 1 (Johner), 15:27. Penalty--Parsons, F (holding), 11:01.

Third period--2, Florida, Damon 2 (Czech, McDonald), 7:53. 3, Florida, Johner 2 (Dyment), 12:53. 4, Florida, Dyment 1 (Brine), 18:14 (en). Penalties--Peterson, F (interference), :39; Murphy, C (slashing), 5:19; Gillies, C (hooking), 9:34; Hartlieb, F (holding), 10:16; Dyment, F (slashing), 16:04.

Shots--Florida 4-9-4-17; Charlotte 10-10-12-32. Goalies--Florida, Kowalski (3-0-0) 32 shots, 32 saves; Charlotte, Westlund (0-1-0), 16-13; Att.--2,726.

[babs<3checkers]

Everblades Press Release (http://www.floridaeverblades.com/news/story.cfm?ID=262)

Kowalski blanks Checkers 4-0; Blades advance to division finals

Charlotte, NC - Behind the stellar goaltending of Craig Kowalski, who turned away all 32 shots he faced, the Florida Everblades advanced to the South Division Finals after a 4-0 victory over the Charlotte Checkers on Tuesday night at Charlotte Bobcats Arena in front of a crowd of 2,726. With the win, the Everblades swept the best-of-five series 3-0.

After a scoreless first period that saw both teams have some opportunities with each club holding three power play chances, it was the Everblades for the third time in the series that found the scoreboard first. Jon Lehun notched the games first goal late in the second period after Dustin Johners shot from the top of the right circle went wide and off the end boards, leading to Lehun firing a quick shot from the bottom of the left circle between the pads of Charlotte goaltender Alex Westlund with 4:33 remaining in the period.

Despite intense pressure by the Checkers over the first six minutes of the final period, it was the Everblades that got on the board at the 7:53 mark to increase their lead to 2-0. Derek Damon and Brent McDonald teamed up on a 2-on-1 rush with McDonald feeding the puck into the left circle for Damon who lasered a wrist shot low inside the left post for a two-goal lead. The Everblades increased their lead to 3-0 five minutes later when Johner took a lead pass from Chris Dyment in a on breakaway where he chipped a backhand shot over the glove of Westlund. Dyment later salted the game away with his first playoff goal by firing a shot from the left circle into the open Charlotte net with 1:46 remaining in the game.

In goal, Kowalski improved his record this playoffs to 3-0 and his career playoff record to 6-0 with his shutout performance, while Westlund suffered the loss in his first playoff game in 2007 by allowing three goals on 16 shots .

On the power play, the Everblades finished the game 0-for-5, while the Checkers closed out the game 0-for-8.

[SD12]

Gee, I wonder who he's referring to here?

NAPLES DAILY NEWS (http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/apr/17/blades_finish_sweep_checkers_40/?everblades)

BLADES FINISH OFF SWEEP OF CHECKERS, 4-0

By Andrew Sodergren

CHARLOTTE, NC - Craig Kowalski heard the chants and he saw the signs made by Charlotte fans deriding him.

One group of fans constantly shouted "Kowalski ... Kowalski, you (stink)." Another fan had a sign with what looked like a dangling Christmas ornament of Kowalski dressed up in an elf costume which read "Shoot high, Elfwalski can't stop it," a dig at the goaltender's 5-foot-8 frame.

He actually enjoyed all the jeering, but he enjoyed even more what he did to shut the fans up.

Kowalski recorded 32 saves, including several which were high on the degree-of-difficulty scale, as the Florida Everblades posted 4-0 victory in Game 3 of the South Division semifinals. The Everblades swept the series and advanced to the divisional finals against either Gwinnett or Texas. Game 1 of that series is slated for Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Germain Arena.

"It reminded me a lot of college," Kowalski said. "People would do that type of thing all the time in college, so I'm pretty used to it. It was great to get the W and the shutout, though."

The game was scoreless through most of the first two periods, with each team playing a defensive style of hockey, trying to avoid the big mistake.

"The first two periods were pretty dull," Kowalski said. "It took somebody to score to get both teams into the game."

That score came late in the second period when Jonathan Lehun rebounded a Dustin Johner miss and fired it past Charlotte goaltender Alex Westlund for the only goal Kowalski would need.

"Both teams were pretty tentative early," Everblades coach Gerry Fleming said. "I think our guys were playing not to make mistakes on the road. Once we got that first goal, you could see the guys gain a lot of confidence."

Fleming lauded the play not only of Kowalski, but of the Everblades' defensemen.

"K-Wal was great, he made a lot of quality saves," Fleming said. "Our defensemen did a nice job of blocking shots and playing strong without the puck. We were really sound without the puck tonight."

While the game was still scoreless, Kowalski and his defensemen held the Checkers in check.

Checkers forward Dusty Jamieson appeared ready to take a shot on a breakaway, but a fast-closing Steve Czech knocked the puck away before he could get anything on Kowalski. On one play, Martin Tuma lost his stick but still had the presence of mind to guard the net as Kowalski made a glove save.

"We were aware of their breakaway capability," Czech said. "We were really watching Jamieson and (Mark) Lee and we did a good job of cutting them off. And K-Wal was on his game. He made a bunch of big saves. He's definitely the sixth man back there."

The third period started with Charlotte's P.A. announcer imploring the fans to get behind their team. The fans didn't need much prodding, as they banged the boards, their seats, basically anything they could get ahold of to make noise. Charlotte was in pure desperation mode, and it needed a goal to get some momentum and keep the crowd going.

That goal never came.

Instead, Brent McDonald turned a Charlotte turnover into a score, when he skated past the blue line and fired a pass to Derek Damon. Damon drilled it past Westlund for a 2-0 Blades lead at the 7:53 mark of the third period.

"You could sense the air coming out of the balloon at that point," Everblades veteran forward/defenseman Ernie Hartlieb said.

If the air was coming out of the balloon with the second goal, it completely burst when Johner turned another turnover into a goal and 3-0 lead.

It may as well have been 10-0.

"When we scored the second one, I knew there was no way they were coming back with the way our defense was playing," Kowalski said.