Checkers Check-in: Week of March 7,2025

Another multi-win week keeps Charlotte in 4th place in the AHL's Atlantic division, just 5 points out of first place.

Image courtesy of bizjournals.com and the Charlotte Checkers https://sl.bing.net/jjhGqPocWZ2

After a busy week on and off the ice, it was a 2-2 split for Charlotte's professional hockey team.

CLEVELAND SCORES LATE, EARNS A SHOOTOUT WIN OVER THE CHECKERS 2-1

Charlotte was a little over 4 minutes away from notching their 29th win of the season last Friday night, that was until Monsters forward Roman Ahcan beat Checkers goalie Chris Driedger to even the hockey game at one goal apiece.

The lone Charlotte goal was scored by John Leonard, his 22nd of the year at 12:34 of the first period after he found Rasmus Asplund's rebound and knew just where to put it.

The goaltending was beyond solid for both teams as Jet Greaves, who's only mistake was the Leonard goal, made 44 saves and despite his Monsters teammates offensive struggles for a good portion of the game. Greaves kept his team squarely in the contest long enough for Cleveland to tie it forcing overtime.

Driedger made 18 saves of his own but was on the receiving end of some rough luck. Ahcans late goal that tied the hockey game came on a Checkers power play.

The game remained scoreless at the end of the 5-minute overtime. In the shootout Trey Fix-Wolansky and Cameron Butler lit the lamp in rounds one and three for Cleveland, while Justin Sourdif and John Leonard came up empty during the Checkers two attempts.

Game one of the two game set would go to the Monsters.

Deja Vu nuggets:

It may feel like you have read this before but, both teams were 0/9 on the power play, the Checkers, who came into the game tied for 2nd in the AHL on the power play were 0/4 themselves.

Digging into it further reveals that Charlotte at that point had 1 power play goal in their last 10 games.

Charlotte put on a shooting clinic as they led Cleveland 33-10 in shots on goal through the first forty minutes of hockey.

While there are no quotes from coach Geordie Kinnear after road games, here are some notes via Charlottecheckers.com

-Charlotte is 2-3 in games ending in a shootout this season

-The Checkers at this point had scored 1 goal in their last 120 minutes of hockey.

-This was the third game in a row that the Checkers have given up two goals or less.

- This was the second time in the last four games that the Checkers have recorded over 40 shots on goal and the fourth time in the last five games they have held their opponent to under 20 shots on goal

- John Leonard’s 22nd goal moves him into a tie for sixth in the AHL

-Chris Driedger had allowed one goal in each of his last two starts

-Jesse Puljujarvi skated in his 600th pro game and Riley Bezeau skated in his 100th AHL game

All notes above are courtesy of the Charlotte Checkers and can be found here:

https://charlottecheckers.com/articles/checkers-fumble-late-lead-in-cleveland,-fall-in-so

COOPER BLACK'S BRILLIANCE, DEFENSE AND TIMELY SCORING GET CHECKERS BACK ON TRACK LAST SATURDAY NIGHT IN CLEVELAND.

It had a familiar feeling to it, this time with a different result.

With the game tied late, Charlotte had a power play but unlike the game prior the Checkers would not be denied, not this time.

In front of an engaged crowd of 12,606 at Rocket Arena Justin Sourdif came through on an important 5 on 3 advantage with less than 6 minutes to go that would end up giving Charlotte a split with the Monsters on this mini two game road trip to Northeast Ohio.

John Leonard made it 4 goals in 5 games as he opened the scoring 13:38 into the first period keeping a Cleveland turnover in the Monsters zone and beating Zach Sawchenko.

Cleveland put the equalizer home 4:47 into the second period as Rocco Grimaldi pumped faked and scored shortly after the Monsters won the face off, Fix-Wolansky and Mckown were credited with the assists.

The game saw fifteen penalties, eight of those in the 2nd period alone including a double minor. For the game the Checkers were 1/6 on the man advantage while Cleveland was 1/9.

The hockey game would remain tied until Sourdifs late game timely goal.

CJ Smith and Rasmus Asplund added empty net goals to seal the victory, each with less than a minute to play. For Smith it was his first as a Charlotte Checker.

Goaltending again shined for both teams as Checker netminder Cooper Black made 19 big saves.

Sawchenko was solid himself tying a season high with 38 saves for Cleveland.

TRADE MADNESS BEGINS:

Shortly before Saturday night's game ended one time Charlotte Checker and now one time Florida Panther goaltender Spencer Knight and a 2026 1st round pick was traded to Chicago for Seth Jones and a 2026 4th rounder. A move that had a lot of Checkers/Panthers fans reminiscing about last year's Stanley Cup run in South Florida and his time in Charlotte as a Checker.

As a result, Chris Driedger was called up to the Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon to back up Sergei Bobrovsky.

Notes from Charlottecheckers.com

-The Checkers finished their season series against Cleveland with a 2-1-0-1 record

-Sourdif’s game winner snapped a three-game power-play drought for Charlotte

- Cooper Black had won each of his last six starts and allowed eight total goals over that stretch

- CJ Smith’s goal was his 100th of his pro career

-Will Lockwood had assists in each of his last two games

-Rasmus Asplund’s goal gave him points in two straight games

All notes above are via Charlottecheckers.com and can be found here:

https://charlottecheckers.com/articles/checkers-drown-monsters-behind-clutch-sourdif-goal

TOUGH TUESDAY AT THE BISCUIT

Cooper Black's six game win streak ends as the Thunderbirds defeat Charlotte.

The Checkers weren't able to get anything going offensively to extend their netminders personal win streak to a lucky seven, in the other crease Springfield goaltender Colten Ellis was absolutely fantastic pitching a 32 save shutout Tuesday night at Bojangles Coliseum.

The first period saw a beautiful shorthanded goal by Thunderbirds forward Corey Andonovski 11:42 into the game, Andonovski took a pass from Mackenzie MacEachern and beat Cooper Black blocker side.

It remained quiet until late in the third period when MacEachern was involved in the scoring again, this time he beat Black from just outside the right-wing slot to make it a 2-0 game with less than seven minutes remaining in the 3rd period. Shortly after the Checkers pulled the goaltender, Matthew Peca added the Thunderbirds 2nd shorthanded goal of the night, clinching the 3-0 victory for Springfield.

Nuggets:

-Charlotte was yet again blanked on the man advantage going 0/4 on the power play.

-The Checkers outshot the Thunderbirds 32-22

-Cooper Black recorded 20 saves for the home team.

QUOTES from Coach Kinnear via Charlottecheckers.com

Coach Geordie Kinnear on the game:

I thought we had a great start. I thought the first period was really good, minus the power play where we gave the shorthanded goal. I thought that took some energy away from the group a little bit. I liked the start, and then it was just a bit of a mental grind all the way along. We had some opportunities, not necessarily chances on the power play, but we had power-play opportunities to get it tied and we couldn’t get it done.

Kinnear on how the team could improve offensively:

The power play is a big one, to be quite honest with you. You want to win the special team's battle. They didn’t have any power plays and that creates momentum, but again, it was a bit of a grind all the way along. That’s sometimes the way it’s going to be, and you’ve got to find a way to score a goal to get the energy up a little bit. Move on, take some lessons and continue to improve.

EXTRA NOTES via Charlottecheckers.com

-The Checkers are now 2-2-1 against Springfield this season.

-Prior to this game, the home team had won every game

-The Checkers have been shut out four times this season, all at home. This was their second consecutive home game with no goals for

-The Checkers did not take a penalty for the first time all season

All Charlotte Checkers information above can be found here:

https://charlottecheckers.com/articles/checkers-shut-out-by-springfield

A BIG NIGHT LEADS TO A BIG WIN

Sourdif, Carrick pace Checkers Wednesday night at the Biscuit.

Two goals apiece for both Justin Sourdif and Trevor Carrick led Charlotte past the Springfield Thunderbirds sending the fans who were in attendance at Bojangles Coliseum for dollar beer night to the exits happy.

Sourdif opened the scoring just 37 seconds into the game after racing into the Springfield zone and rifling a scorcher past T-Birds goaltender Vadim Zherenko. The Checkers kept the pressure on as Trevor Carrick would score both of his goals 2 minutes and 18 seconds apart to increase the Charlotte lead to 3-0 causing the Thunderbirds to pull Zherenko for Colten Ellis with 11 minutes to play in the opening frame.

A win wouldn't be secured that easy as Thunderbirds forwards Matt Luff and Mackenzie MacEachern would score a goal each just four minutes and thirty-seven seconds apart, both assisted by Matthew Peca to get Springfield within one goal, it was 3-2 Charlotte going into the first intermission.

As much action as there was in the first frame, that's equally as much action as there wasn't it the second period.

The game remained just a one goal Checkers lead until Justin Sourdif scored his second goal of the evening with just under thirteen minutes to play. A Rasmus Asplund empty net goal shorthanded with 28 seconds remaining would clinch Charlotte's 30th victory of the 2024-25 campaign.

Checkers scoring nuggets:

2 goals and 1 assist for Justin Sourdif

2 goals for Trevor Carrick(1 on the PP)

3 assists for Ben Steeves

1 goal and 1 assist for Rasmus Asplund

There were 18 penalties in this game combined, 10 were committed by Springfield, leading to a power play goal and a shorthanded goal, both scored by Charlotte.

QUOTES and NOTES via Charlottecheckers.com

QUOTES

Coach Geordie Kinnear on scoring the first three goals:

It was an interesting start. We gave up a two-on-one first shift, then (Sourdif) came down and scored a nice goal. Overall, it wasn’t just about the start. It’s the whole group playing to our identity and how we play as a group. I thought everyone bought in and did a real good job for 60 minutes.

Kinnear on Patrick Giles being traded away earlier in the day:

You look where Patty came from, part of the environment he helped create. An unbelievable human being first and foremost, and a really good hockey player second. What his best quality is, is a teammate. If you look at those guys, I think everyone I talked to was his best friend. Credit to the group for having mental toughness. It’s not easy when you lose someone like that, so I’m very proud of the group. I would say those types of days are happy/sad, because you’re happy he’s getting an opportunity somewhere else and hopefully he can continue down the path he’s had here where he’s played his first NHL game. I kind of talked to him after, and you go through this as an American Hockey League coach where you’re usually the first person to tell somebody that they’re going to play in the National Hockey League. You always remember the ones that really put in the work and did everything right, and he’s one of the special ones for me that I was able to tell he was going to play his first NHL game. We’re going to miss him, but credit to the group because they really rallied. I thought it was a total team effort to be honest.

Kinnear on the offense drying up prior to tonight:

Dired up is when you’re not getting chances, but I think the chances had been there. You go through stretches like that and you’ve just got to stick with it, which I thought the group did. I think we had chances in the second period where we didn’t score and we continued to just play to our identity and nothing fazed us.

Justin Sourdif on bouncing back from last night’s loss:

It just shows the testament and perseverance of our group. That all trickles down from our leadership and our coaching staff. They get us ready for every game, and when we come out with speed and we play hard like that, I think we’re right up there with the best teams in the league. We’re obviously hoping to make a really long playoff push again, and I have a lot of confidence in our group right now. It’s nice to see.

Sourdif on breaking through offensively:

Even power play and stuff like that, (Assistant Coach) Bobby Sanguinetti does an amazing job getting us ready for games and I think it’s just an effort thing. Our power play was No. 1 in the league for a while and then we kind of took a step back, so we kind of reverted to our old habits of just playing hard, getting pucks to the net and finishing on rebounds. I think we did a great job of that tonight. It was good to see.

Trevor Carrick on the Giles trade:

Today was obviously a tough day losing Patty. A good teammate and a good hockey player. It’s never easy when you see one of those guys go. I’m proud of the group sticking with it tonight, and it was a good team win.

Carrick on rallying the team after the trade:

He was here for three years so a lot of guys were close with him, and just in the short period I met him he was just an awesome guy. Great in the locker room and he brought the room together. It’s going to be tough the next couple of days because it’s not the same without him in the room, but it’s a business and you’ve got to keep moving forward. We’ve got a lot of good players still, and hopefully he gets a chance out in San Jose.

Carrick on scoring twice with his infant daughter in attendance:

My good luck charm. I think she was only here for the first, I wish she was here for the second and third, but it was pretty special.

NOTES

-Sourdif’s three points were a season high

- This was Carrick’s first multi-goal game since Feb. 17, 2020

-Steeves’ three assists were his first points since a two-assist game on Jan. 14. This was his second three-point game of the season

-The Checkers are now 3-2-1 against Springfield this season. The teams meet again for the final two games of the regular season in Springfield on April 18 and 19

All notes and quotes above are courtesy of the Charlotte Checkers and can be found here:

https://charlottecheckers.com/articles/carrick,-sourdif-each-score-twice-in-5-2-win-against-springfield

Charlotte will be in action again this weekend as a busy March continues with a 2-game set against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Puck drop for Saturday's game celebrating International Women's Day will be at 4 pm while Sunday's Gaston County Day featuring Gastonia Ghost Pepper jerseys will be at 1 pm.

MORE TRADE DEADLINE MADNESS

After sending Florida goaltender and former Charlotte Checker Spencer Knight to the windy city some in Panther nation felt a move would be coming and Wednesday that move did indeed happen.

Florida traded for San Jose goaltender Vitek Vanecek in exchange for Charlotte Checkers forward Patrick Giles prompting the Panthers to send Chris Driedger back to Charlotte Thursday morning.

Shortly after trading Giles, the Florida Panthers signed winger Jesse Puljujärvi to a one-year, two-way contract, worth $775,000.

By Thursday afternoon the Winnipeg Jets and Panthers had swapped goaltenders sending Chris Driedger to the great white north for Kaapo Kahkonen who was assigned to the Checkers Friday evening.

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