Lynx begin important homestand with a win

The Augusta Lynx got off to a white-hot start Friday night against Charlotte, finished in similar fashion and now face the second half of their season with plenty of momentum.

Augusta scored three goals in the first 6 minutes and four in the final 12 to rout the Checkers, 7-3 at Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center.

The Lynx carried out their hopes of opening an important five-game homestand on a strong note and play host to South Carolina tonight.

"This is a pivotal part of our season, and we all know that in order for us to get to the playoffs, we need a huge homestand," said Brian Passmore, who scored a goal and had two assists for the Lynx.

"And we got off to a pretty good start tonight."

Augusta moved to 9-4-1 when scoring first and 14-17-3 overall, picking up an important two points and putting an end to Charlotte's four-game winning streak.

"One of the things we wanted to emphasize was getting that lead under our belts and gathering some momentum," Lynx coach Bob Ferguson said.

"And we couldn't have asked for it to have fallen into better place than it did tonight."

Joe Pereira scored two goals and had an assist, Dan Sullivan scored twice, and Ryan Lang had a goal and an assist to lead the Lynx, who had their second-highest scoring game of the season.

Joel Perrault, in his debut with the Lynx, added a goal and an assist in his first game in seven months.

Augusta had a 3-0 lead after just six shots on goal and before Charlotte (18-13-3) ever managed its first crack at goal.

Mike Wall was solid in goal for Augusta with several clutch saves, and Augusta's defense forced much of the game into Charlotte's zone.

"That's one of the things we've been working on in practice - trying to score more goals and play better in our own end," said Passmore, whose first goal gave him two consecutive games with a score from behind the keeper.

"We're just trying to get out there in front of the net, get those rebounds and play together."

Lang started the scoring with a strong right-handed rebound off a Pereira shot just 2:26 into the game.

Sullivan followed with another rebound goal less than two minutes later, and Passmore's bank off the back of Charlotte keeper Chris Holt made it 3-0 at the 14:18 mark of the first period.

Charlotte scored late in the first off a defensive turnover by the Lynx and early in the second on a power play goal by Mike Bayrack to cut the deficit to one.

But the Lynx followed with three consecutive goals from Pereira, Sullivan and Perrault over a span of 5:48 to make it 6-3, effectively ending any threat.

Reach Steve Sanders at (706) 823-33216 or steven.l.sanders@augustachronicle.com.