The Gwinnett Gladiators' dropped their third consecutive home game, falling 6-3 to the Charlotte Checkers.
The Charlotte Checkers, Daniel Tkaczuk tipped a centering pass from Randy Rowe just over Gwinnett goaltender Danny Taylor's blocker just one minute into the contest to start the barrage.
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The Checkers dominated the pace of the entire period, firing 17 shots on goal,. But the score remained unchanged as Shots after one period were 17-9 in favor of Charlotte.
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The Gladiators responded in the second period with more intensity, but were still unable to solve Charlotte goaltender Frank Doyle despite edging the Checkers in shots 15-12.?
The Checkers struck again 2:55 into the third period to make the score 2-0 early in the last period. Mike Taylor found Jean-Philipp Chabot breaking toward the Gwinnett goal and snuck behind the Gladiators' defense and beat Taylor high on the blocker side from just above the crease.
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Charlotte made it 3-0 four minutes later on another Gladiator defensive breakdown. Daniel Tkaczuk scored his second goal of the night, taking a pass from Randy Rowe from behind the Gwinnett goal cage and slamming it home low on Taylor's glove-hand side.
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After some sustained offensive pressure and several missed shots, Matt Siddall bounced a puck off the pads of Frank Doyle from below the goal line to the left of the net, spoiling Doyle's shutout.?
Charlotte regained their three-goal lead three minutes later on Randy Rowe's first goal of the season, which set off a scoring frenzy at both ends of the rink.
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Jason Lawrence scored against his former team in his first game with the Gladiators 11 seconds after Rowe's goal, again closing the Checkers' lead to two, and Tom Zanoski cut the lead to 4-3 with a tally at 17:43, giving hope to a flailing Gwinnett squad.
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But Matt Schepke's empty net goal with just over a minute remaining in regulation dashed any hopes of a Gladiator comeback, and they would add one more, as Daniel Tkaczuk completed his hat trick with 19 seconds remaining to settle the scoring at 6-3.
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The Charlotte Checkers notched five goals in the third period,
The Charlotte Checkers notched five goals in the third period, the most allowed by the Gladiators in a single period since South Carolina matched the number on Valentine’s Day last season. With the win, they extend their winning streak to five games and up their goal count to 29 in that span.
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The Gladiators fell to 3-5-0-1 at home, losing just their second game to a South Division team all season.
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Danny Taylor suffered his third loss, stopping 37 out of 43 shots, and Frank Doyle imporved to 3-0-0-0 on the season, as he made 33 saves in the win.
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The Gladiators move to 8-5-1-1 on the season, losing their third straight home tilt, and the Checkers improve to 10-3-1-1, upping their lead in the standings to four points over Gwinnett and just two shy of leader South Carolina.
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Scoring Summary:
1. CHR Tkaczuk, (3) (Rowe), 1:00
2. CHR Chabot, (2) (Taylor, Reynolds), 2:55
3. CHR Tkaczuk, (4) (Rowe, Ward), 6:46
1. GWT Siddall, (3) (Berti, Galivan), 11:13
4. CHR Rowe, (1) (Tkaczuk, Schepke), 14:27
2. GWT Lawrence, (1) (Forney), 14:38
3. GWT Zanoski, (10) (Roberts), 17:43
5. CHR Schepke, (9) (Tkaczuk), 18:50 (EN)
6. CHR Tkaczuk, (5) (Reynolds), 19:41
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