Checkers Begin Quest for Calder Cup at Home

CHARLOTTE - The Charlotte Checkers ended the regular season with seven straight wins and points in 10 straight games (9-0-1). They were the hottest team in the American Hockey League.
But that was then, and this is now: when the Checkers begin their first-round Calder Cup Playoff series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at home on Friday night, everything resets to zero.
"We wanted to be peaking at the right time, and that's the playoff time. We had a good run coming down the stretch," Checkers head coach Mike Vellucci said. "We had a good season so far, but like I said all week, it means nothing right now. It's a new season. You play all year to get to the playoffs, and then it's a clean slate."
"You've got to leave the season behind, but when you finish well, you get some confidence going as a group and you get greedy to win," defenseman Roland McKeown said. "I want to continue that, and we all do, as well."

The Checkers will look to roll that momentum from the end of the regular season into this best-of-five series, which begins with two games at Bojangles' Coliseum, where the team won 26 games this season. Taking a 2-0 series advantage on the road would put the pressure on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
"It's a quick series - only five games - so getting off to a good start is huge," defenseman Haydn Fleury said. "Having home ice first is a big advantage if we can get two. We've got to take advantage of it to start."

"A split doesn't really do that much good. We've really got to get these two wins," McKeown said. "If we get the momentum early tonight, it will be key."
The Checkers certainly have the talent to make this a competitive series against a veteran Penguins lineup. With an average of 3.45 goals per game, Charlotte boasted the AHL's top offense in the regular season, led by the league's leading goal scorer, Valentin Zykov.
"We've put up a lot of goals this year. We've got a lot of good skill up front, and our D has contributed offensively also. I think scoring goals has been a real key for us. We had 70 power-play goals this year, the most in the league," Vellucci said. "We've been drafting the last several years for skill, and it's starting to show itself down here because all these guys can play. There are a lot of prospects that are going to play in the National Hockey League someday, and the guys who have gotten called up this year have done really well. The future is bright."
Zykov was among the call-ups who saw success with Carolina this season. First-year forward Warren Foegele was another. He scored a goal in each of his first two NHL games, and he finished his rookie season in the AHL with 28 goals (second among league rookies), 46 points and a plus-22 rating.
"I just tried to take that confidence from up there and bring it here," Foegele said. "We've been doing the same all year. We've got to be consistent and work hard."

On the back end, McKeown and Fleury, especially, bring NHL experience to a solid defensive corps.
"It's no secret that we have a high-skilled group," McKeown said. "Playoff hockey is rough and tough and also skilled, so I think if we have a combination of those three, it's going to be a good series and we're going to be a hard team to beat."
Fleury, who skated in 67 games as a rookie with the Hurricanes this season, joined the Checkers soon after the Canes wrapped up play in early April. As a second-year pro who was a part of the Checkers team that lost to Chicago in five games in the first round of last year's Calder Cup Playoffs, Fleury feels better equipped for what's ahead.
"[He brings] experience, size, skating ability and what he learned this year in the National Hockey League," Vellucci said. "He's got some real close friends on this team and is the same age as a lot of them. He's been great off the ice for us, and his maturity level in the last three years has really improved."
"They have a really talented team down here, and it's made it really easy. They have a lot of skilled guys and a lot of guys I'm familiar with, whether it's playing with them last year or Traverse City. I know most of the team, and they've been really good to me," Fleury said. "I think I can play in a lot of situations. Playing with [Brenden] Kichton right now. I think we both skate well and both move the puck well. Use each other, be solid defensively, jump into holes and create offense."
Though Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finished three points ahead of the Checkers in the standings, Charlotte took three out of the four meetings in the regular season. The Penguins are led offensively by Daniel Sprong, who tallied 32 goals, just one off Zykov's league-best mark. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is captained by former Hurricane Tom Kostopoulos, and the tandem of Tristan Jarry, Michael Leighton (another former Hurricane) and Anthony Peters tend the nets.
"We're playing a very good team. Very physical and hard-nosed. We're going to have to be very competitive," Vellucci said. "They're a big, strong team. Their defense is big, strong and nasty. They're very competitive, and they're way more experienced. An older team. We're going to have to make sure we use our speed and skill to our advantage."
"Playing with our speed is one of the key attributes we have," Foegele said. "If we play fast hockey, it's pretty hard to contain."
On the morning of Game 1, there was palpable excitement on the ice at Bojangles' Coliseum. This is a confident Checkers team, a group eager to parlay their hot finish in the regular season into postseason success.
The journey begins tonight.
"We're very excited. We've been waiting all week. It seems like it's been forever," Vellucci said. "We had a good skate here this morning, and we're ready to go."
"I thought at morning skate we were real sharp," McKeown said. "Everyone is excited. This is what you play 76 games for. A best-of-five series is pretty quick, so you've got to get on top early. No time to waste."
"I'd say 'exciting' is the word. You wait for this moment all year long," Foegele said. "To have that chance right now to compete for a championship is exciting."