Checkers Check-In: Week of February 28, 2025
The Charlotte Checkers picked up two big wins over the Hershey Bears last weekend; enter weekend clash with Cleveland Monsters.
Photo via Charlotte Checkers // flickr
Benning’s heroics help lead the Checkers past first place Hershey.
On a night where Charlotte was playing "what if's" when it came to their River Rats history when the team moved to Charlotte from Albany, NY in 2010. There were zero what ifs from Mike Benning. Picking up from where he left off two weekends ago vs Hartford, Benning came through at the most critical stage of a hockey game that a Bojangles Coliseum record 8,665 people attended. A record that Charlotte broke during the post Valentines Day weekend series with the Wolfpack.
With 28 seconds remaining Benning's blast found the back of the net beating Hershey goalie Hunter Shepard to give Charlotte a 2-1 lead. Kyle Criscuolo added an empty netter to give the Checkers a 3-1 win, their third win in a row. Charlotte, at that point, was tied for 3rd in the AHL's Atlantic division and they only sat 4 points behind the division leading Bears.
The game remained scoreless for nearly the first two periods. With 2:29 left in the middle frame John Leonard stayed hot as he beat Shepard blocker side to open the scoring.
The Bears would tie it with 14:38 remaining in the game as former Checker Chase Priskie found Hendrix Lapierre with a terrific saucer pass into open ice for a breakaway, Hendrix beat Driedger and it gave Lapierre's goals in three straight games. The contest remained tied until Benning's late game magic reappeared.
Notes and nuggets:
The two teams combined to be 0/9 on the power play.
Charlotte continued to play elite defense only allowing 16 shots which Charlotte goalie Chris Driedger stopped 15 of.
The other side of the coin offensively, the Checkers continued to keep the pressure on in the offensive zone getting the puck on Hersheys netminder 37 times.
QUOTES from Charlottecheckers.com
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the game:
There were pockets of good hockey and pockets where neither team had anything going, to be quite honest. Obviously, the outcome went our way and at the end we made a couple of plays at the end.
Kinnear on breaking through for the winning goal:
Just sticking with it. We have a certain mindset we want to live by and I thought our guys did a really good job with it. Obviously, you don’t like giving up that goal in the third period, a breakaway to an elite player who is not going to make a mistake very often, but we stuck with it, had a big kill and then made a play at the end to win a hockey game.
Kinnear on Mike Benning:
Shooting the puck, he’s an elite player. We talked before about having a positive impact offensively. He wants to be able to do that and he’s worked extremely hard at being better defensively. Ultimately, I talk always about having to be who you are, and he’s got to produce offensively. If you look at his pedigree, he makes big plays in big moments. That was a big moment and he made the play, but if you look at the goal itself, a couple of other guys made the play. (Rasmus Asplund) finds him late, and then Willy Lockwood was net front and screened the goalie so the goalie couldn’t see it.
Kinnear on Chris Driedger:
He had a really good two weeks of working hard, working with (goalie coach Sylvain Rodrigue) and working on his own. I know he wanted another start, so I’m proud of him. The whole group played well in front of him, but he had to come up with some timely saves and it’s not always easy when you just sit there for a little bit, get a breakaway, sit there and then have to make a couple of key saves. I thought he did a good job with being mentally tough today.
Mike Benning on his winning goal:
I just saw some open ice coming off the bench, and (Asplund) put it in a great spot for me to just shoot away. It hit the net and went in.
Benning on Asplund’s setup:
He’s a vet. He’s been through all this and I trust his instincts. He makes the right play nine times out of 10. He’s a great player for us; he found me there and I was just in the right spot.
Benning on playing against Hershey:
These guys are a very structured team and they’re always up there in the standings. Our ultra-competitiveness, it’s good. It’s our team. It’s being consistent shift in and shift out. We’re getting the results now, so it’s good.
All coach Kinnear quotes are via the Charlotte Checkers and Charlottecheckers.com and can be found here:
Sunday shutout at the Biscuit
Another solid defensive effort from both teams Sunday afternoon at Bojangles Coliseum left the game scoreless until a power play goal by Hershey's Ivan Miroshnichenko found the back of the net with 8:22 left in the second period.
Even though Charlotte outshot the Bears 14-4 in the final period, the game remained tied until Hersheys Ethan Bear added an empty net goal late in the 3rd.
The Checkers three game win streak was history.
Charlotte could not figure out Clay Stevenson all afternoon as the Bears netminder was fantastic stopping all 26 Checkers shots.
Ken Appleby was solid in net for this Checkers team, stopping 20 of 21 Hershey shots. Charlotte, while still solid defensively, allowed more shots than they did during their Saturday afternoon win against the Bears. In fact, the Checkers had not been outshot since January 22nd at Iowa.
Charlotte is now 28-14-3-2(15-8-2-0 at home), their 61 points leaves Geordie Kinnear's team just six points behind the Bears for 1st place in the AHL's Atlantic division.
Interesting nugget:
Even though they are 2nd in the AHL on the power play, Charlotte was 0/8 on the man advantage this past weekend vs Hershey.
QUOTES AND NOTES FROM CHARLOTTECHECKERS.COM
QUOTES:
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the game:
I didn’t think it was very good in the first two periods. They got some energy in the third period and played a lot better in the third, but we were down 1-0 and kind of chasing it a bit.
Kinnear on tight games against Hershey this season:
It was less about Hershey and more about how we played, to be honest with you. I didn’t think that for some reason we had the normal energy that we have, especially to start a game. For the first two periods it was kind of just out there playing, and then we got involved mentally and physically in the third and got going a little bit. We just want to continue to build here. You’re not going to win every hockey game and you’re not going to love every period, but as long as we take lessons along the way I’m good with it.
Kinnear on an injury to Sandis Vilmanis suffered in the previous game:
He's day-to-day right now, but obviously per usual we had a guy leave in the first period last game and played short a little bit, so hopefully he’s alright.
NOTES:
The Checkers have been shut out three times this season, all at home.
Despite the loss, Charlotte has won 7 out of their last 10 games.
All coach Kinnear quotes and notes are via the Charlotte Checkers and Charlottecheckers.com and can be found here:
https://charlottecheckers.com/articles/checkers-suffer-shutout-against-hershey
Sourdif, former Checkers shine in Nashville
On Monday, Justin Sourdif was called up to the Florida Panthers due to Panther forward Eetu Luostarinen being unavailable to make the trip to Nashville with the team for Tuesday’s game in Music City. Eetu and his wife were expecting the arrival of their first child.
Also on Monday, the Checkers recalled Riley Hughes from ECHL Savannah to fill Justin's spot.
Sourdif, in his fourth career NHL game scored his first NHL goal in early in the 2nd period on Tuesday night in Nashville against the Predators. One time Checkers Mackie Samoskevich and Gustav Forsling also scored for the Panthers, while Spencer Knight was brilliant between the pipes. It was truly a Checker filled evening.
Justin Sourdif was not in the NHL for long as on Wednesday afternoon the Panthers sent Sourdif back to Charlotte.
Injury update per Checkers head coach Geordie Kinnear:
While on a solid road to recovery, a setback has ruled Aidan McDonough out for the remainder of the season.
Sandis Vilmanis has been labeled as week-to-week. The Checkers are looking to ease him back in so he won't be traveling with the team to Cleveland as he is hoping for some good news in the coming weeks.
Ryan McAllister and Zac Dalpe have started skating but their returns are not imminent as of now.
The injury information is via Charlottecheckers.com, more can be found here:
https://charlottecheckers.com/articles/notebook-reminders
Charlotte's game Friday night in Cleveland will begin a two-game set against the Monsters. Puck drop will be at 7 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday night at Rocket Arena in Northeast Ohio.