The Checkers went toe-to-toe with the defending champs Saturday night and emerged with an impressive 4-2 victory over the Hershey Bears.
After the home side struck first early on in regulation, the Checkers received an offensive boost courtesy of John Leonard. The forward got the visitors on the board with a point-shot redirection out front, then pushed the Checkers ahead later in the frame by flipping a puck from behind the Hershey goal line and squeaking it behind Bears netminder Hunter Shepard.
The Checkers hung tight to that lead through a quiet second period, then it was the veteran Kyle Criscuolo who extended the Charlotte lead by hammering home a quick shot from the slot on an early man advantage.
The Bears made things interesting down the stretch by converting on a two-man advantage to pull within a goal, but the Checkers stomped out any comeback hopes with an empty-net dagger from Rasmus Asplund and a strong finish between the pipes from Ken Appleby - who ended the night with 22 saves and a key win over the division leaders.
NOTES
The Checkers are 3-0-0-0 on the road this season … The Checkers went 2-for-2 on the man advantage, bringing their season power-play conversion rate to 41.2 percent … The Checkers have nine goals in their last 16 power plays … Leonard recorded his first multi-goal game and multi-point game of the season … Tonight was Sanids Vilmanis’ first multi-assist game as a pro and his second multi-point effort in the last three games … Trevor Carrick extended his point streak to six games … Leonard has points in four straight games and Vilmanis has points in three straight … Criscuolo has goals in three straight games … The Checkers have allowed two goals in each of their last three games … Ben Steeves, Josh Davies, Patrick Giles, Zac Dalpe, Jamie Armstrong, MacKenzie Entwistle, Mitch Vande Sompel, Mikulas Hovorka and Chris Driedger were the extras for Charlotte
