THE MATCHUP
The road trip rolls on for Charlotte as the Checkers take their hot streak into Pennsylvania and look to close the gap with the Penguins in the Atlantic Division standings.THE STORYLINES
Collecting Points
The Checkers enter the weekend riding a seven-game point streak that stands not only as the longest by the team this season, but the longest active such streak in the Atlantic Division. Charlotte has now collected points in eight of the last 10 contests (6-2-2-0) and is pushing its way up the Atlantic standings - they have a five-point cushion on the sixth-place Springfield behind them and trail the fourth-place Wolf Pack and third-place Penguins by one and four points, respectively.Nailbiter
Charlotte kept that point streak alive with a tightly contested 2-1 overtime win over Hartford on Wednesday. The Checkers are now 10-2-6-0 in one-goal games this season. It also marked their seventh overtime win of the season, tying Charlotte for the second most in the AHL thus far.Knight Knight
Spencer Knight has come up big between the pipes for Charlotte over this most recent stretch of games. The netminder has earned a win in each of his last four starts while surrendering eight total goals across that run.Charlotte’s stingy defense has lightened the load for Knight as well, with none of those victories requiring more than 26 saves from the netminder. The Checkers are currently averaging the third fewest shots on goal per game in the AHL.
Dynamic Duo
Mackie Samoskevich and Justin Sourdif have been doing damage as linemates - something exemplified by their connection on the overtime-winning goal Wednesday in Hartford.Samoskevich has 12 points in his last 14 games while Sourdif has 14 in his last 15, and at least one half of the tandem has recorded a point in six of Charlotte’s last seven games.
THE ONES TO WATCH
Charlotte
- Mackie Samoskevich - 8 points in last 7 games
- Patrick Giles - 3 assists in last 3 games
- Gerry Mayhew - 7 points in last 4 games
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
- Jagger Joshua - 5 points in last 4 games
- Jonathan Gruden - 9 points in last 6 games
- Corey Andonovski - 4 points in last 6 games
