The two sides spent 40 minutes trading tallies and entered the final frame deadlocked at two. Rasmus Asplund pushed the Checkers ahead for the first time early on in the third, circling the net for a slick wraparound goal, then Marek Alscher doubled that advantage minutes later when he was sprung on a breakaway and buried a wrist shot.
The Wild would push back down the stretch, cutting into Charlotte’s lead in the back half of the period, but Asplund launched a full-ice shot into the vacated net in the final seconds of play to clinch a homecoming win for the Checkers.
The kid can shoot! pic.twitter.com/wUFQWixq5B
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) November 29, 2024
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameI think it started in the second period. In the first period I didn’t really see our identity very much. I didn’t have everybody going, but give the guys a lot of credit. They started skating in the second period and we got to our game and made some plays in the third period to win the hockey game. A hard-fought game.
Kinnear on bouncing back in this game
You need that, right? We’re all kidding ourselves saying that you’re going to have your identity all the time and roll 60 minutes for 70-something games. It’s important that you be able to go from a low to a high and be able to find it and know you can do it. I liked that part of the growth tonight.
Kinnear on what allowed the team to bounce back
They just stuck with it. Again, the first period was kind of stagnant and I didn’t really like it, but they started getting in the sync a little bit and getting to where how we want to play. You can’t rely on the power play all the time and there were no power plays to be had tonight, so we had to win it five-on-five.
Kinnear on players like Ben Steeves and Riese Gaber becoming regulars in the lineup
You look at the whole program, they went down at the start of the year and were working with (Jared Staal down in ECHL Savannah), had great attitudes, worked hard and got their chances up here. They’ve been in the lineup and they’ve had positive impact. Steeves on the power play and Gabes is killing penalty now. Credit to them and credit to the whole group. I said it last year and I’ll say it again – you need depth to win and we’re going to have to have a lot of depth. You look at the game tonight, I lost a lot of forwards so there had to be some dig-in from a lot of guys. I’m proud of the guys.
Rasmus Asplund on the game
I think we found our game in the second. I think we came out a little slow in the first or they came out hard and we were not really ready for it. I think we found our game in the second and we controlled the game pretty good from there.
Asplund on the team’s ability to bounce back from a slow start
We know we’re a good team and we know we need to play that way every single shift. I still think we have a little bit of work to get to the full 60 and we’ve been struggling a little bit with that all year. We really need to be able to be a 60-minute team to go on a playoff run this spring.
Asplund on team depth
I think you just see what kind of group we are and how deep we are on roster. Every player just does what they can to help the team win, and I think that shows in a game like this.
Asplund on the key to tomorrow’s rematch
Just stick to our game plan and stick to our game. It’s a good test for us again. It was a playoff-type game, physical, and you need to win every shift to be able to come out on top. I think it’s going to be a good game tomorrow again.