On a warm Thursday night in Charlotte, NC, the Charlotte Checkers started their quest for the Calder Cup in the first round of the playoffs versus the Hartford Wolf Pack. The two teams square off in the best-of-three series to see who advances to round two to take on either the Providence Bruins or the Hershey Bears.
Coming into the playoffs, the Checkers had a 7-1-0-0 record versus the Wolf Pack in the regular season and looked to keep that run going. When the dust settled, it was clear that the Checkers’ home-ice advantage in Charlotte would continue.
All Hail the Queen City
In Game 1 of the series between the two teams, special teams played a huge role in kicking off the first round. All in all, three of the four goals in the game were all decided on the special teams. Former Checkers assistant captain Riley Nash tallied the first goal for the Wolf Pack on the power play. It came after rookie sensation from the Checkers Mackie Samoskevich was called for a holding penalty. Fortunately for Charlotte, that would be the only goal given up by the team in the game.
Related: Race To The Calder Cup: Charlotte Checkers vs. Hartford Wolf Pack
Not even four minutes later, captain Zac Dalpe tied the game up for the Checkers on their own powerplay to make it 1-1. If anyone was going to score a goal, it was Dalpe for the Checkers. Defenseman Santtu Kinnunen and forward Gerry Mayhew were credited for the assists. After that, the game went into a constant motion of both teams taking chances but no pucks going in.
Charlotte dominated the shot chances in the first period, outshooting Hartford 16-6. Furthermore, they even outshot the Wolf Pack in the second period 10-8 despite no goals scored.
Checkers Seal Win in Third Period
As the third period went on, it seemed like neither team found the luck to take the lead after being tied 1-1 after two periods. The last five minutes of the period saw a plethora of penalties.
One penalty put the Checkers on a four-minute penalty kill when Matt Kiersted was called for high-sticking. Luckily for Charlotte, they were able to capitalize on the Wolf Pack’s aggressiveness on the counterattack from Skylar Brind’Amour. He stole the puck and was able to skate into the Hartford zone to find Will Lockwood.
In the end, Lockwood capitalized on the situation to give the Checkers a shorthanded goal which pushed them into the lead at the 16:46 mark. Rasmus Asplund was able to ice the game with an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left in regulation. However, tempers continued to flair as each team got offsetting penalties twice within the last three seconds of the game.
The Checkers went 1-for-3 on the powerplay. Also, they killed off 6-of-7 opportunities that the Wolf Pack had in the game. It seems that there is no love loss between these two teams. After how the regular season went between these teams, it makes sense as to why tempers were high.
What’s Next for Charlotte
Game 2 of the three-game series is on Saturday, April 27 at 4:00 pm Eastern. The game will be on AHLtv if people are not able to make it to the Bojangles Coliseum. Hartford has their backs to the wall with Charlotte having a chance to win the series on Saturday at home.
Can Dalpe and Company end this series quickly to move onto Round 2? It remains to be seen but it’ll be a fiery contest between these two teams.
