With strikes to close the first period and open the second, the Bears had latched onto the lead, but a huge second period turned the tide for Charlotte. Brett Chorske had the initial spark early in the frame when he finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play from Will Lockwood and Jesse Puljujarvi, then Mike Benning turned on the jets just minutes later for a coast-to-coast tally that drew the visitors even. The Checkers weren’t done tilting things their way in the second, though, as John Leonard pulled off a slick move in the slot and wired a shot past Hershey netminder Hunter Shepard to give Charlotte its first lead of the night.
The Checkers didn’t let up the gas as the third period rolled around, with Will Lockwood and Kyle Criscuolo each lighting the lamp within five minutes of the start of the frame to push their team’s advantage even further. The Bears would end Charlotte’s streak of five consecutive goals shortly after, but they couldn’t gain any traction down the stretch. Kaapo Kahkonen stood tall between the pipes - finishing with 23 saves on the night - and a Rasmus Asplund empty netter sealed the deal as the Checkers took down the two-time defending champions to capture the Atlantic Division crown.
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) May 22, 2025
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameIf you look at the first period, obviously you know what you’re going to get from Hershey. The defending champs and in this building, it was electric. We made a poor decision at the end of the period and you knew they were going to get a little bit of life from that. They came out and scored the second goal on the first shot, but things got switched up a little bit, we scored a big goal and Willy Lockwood made a great play on the wall to beat a guy off and they ended up scoring a goal, which gave us life, calmed us down a bit and obviously in the second period we found our game.
Kinnear on the series
The first two games, there were ebbs and flows to it and I thought they carried the play at times and then we carried the play at times. It’s getting those big goals and those timely goals. John Leonard scored one in the third period of the first game shorthanded, which ended up being the game winner. In the third period they ended up being the better team in the first half of the second game, and then we got going a little bit and then we took over in the third period and then Asplund scored that big goal. It’s timely goals, because they were pretty evenly-played hockey games. I thought it was pretty even in the first this game, then I thought we took over in the second period and then in the third period we took over again.
Kinnear on fighting injuries this season
How it works is that the season prepares you for the playoffs, and obviously we went through all the injuries. We had lots of depth working with Savannah and Jared Staal down there. He does the same stuff we do, and it was kind of a trickle effect when we get those guys called up. Again, credit to the leadership group. We play a certain way, they welcomed everybody in and we went through that adversity early on and now we don’t miss a beat. I can put anybody in the lineup and I know what I’m going to get. Credit to the whole environment. They’ve done a great job all year.
John Leonard on the win
Obviously everyone’s pretty fired up in there. To do that in this building, obviously it’s a very tough place to play and a really fun place to play, honestly. I think we fed off that energy, and in that second period it felt like, for us, that we took over that game. When (Lockwood) scored in the third, it felt like we were in a pretty good spot.
Leonard on coming back from a 2-0 deficit in this game
We’ve been resilient all year. That’s what’s so special about this group. It doesn’t matter if it’s a tight game, down two or down three, everyone in that room belives that we can still come back, no matter the score. Obviously that third goal is a heck of a play by Locker, and Chorske finished it, and then Benning scored shortly after that and it felt like we were just rolling.
Leonard on the team fighting through injuries this season
All year we fought some really big-time adversity with some big guys going down early. Even just throughout the year with little things here and there. Like I said before, that’s what makes this group so special and so resilient. We always find ways no matter what’s going on, and we have a really good next-man up mentality. Whoever steps in has done a heck of a job.
