Late power play goal dooms Barons

“We shouldn't have been in that position anyway,” Nelson said. “You got to give Charlotte a lot of credit. They played a very strong game. But we were flat the whole game. We weren't generating much.

“To be quite honest with you, I don't think we deserved to win that game. I thought they outworked us tonight.”

The Barons fell to 4-2-0-1 but took three out of five on their five-game home stand.

“We played pretty well here,” Nelson said. “Our home stand was pretty solid, I thought. Out of 10 points, we got seven, so that's pretty successful. So we can build off that.”

Oklahoma City fell behind 1-0 in the first period on a goal by Jerome Sampson at 13:57. The Barons pulled even when Mark Arcobello notched his first goal of the season at 4:08 in the second period. He was assisted by Ryan Lowery and Hunter Tremblay.

But in a game the Barons think should be a wake-up call, the last-minute goal by the Checkers served only as confirmation.

“It's a tough loss, but we got to put it behind us because we have a game less than 24 hours away,” Helmer said.

Oklahoma City plays in Houston at 7:35 p.m. Saturday. The Barons wrap up the weekend with a 3:30 p.m. game Sunday at San Antonio.