It took until the final five minutes of the first period for Marek Alscher to start the scoring, but that tally opened the floodgates.
The Checkers would strike three times in that final five minutes of the first to build a substantial lead, then added three more over a six-minute stretch in the second to add to their towering advantage. The physical contest went off the rails in the third and the Checkers took advantage of Hartford’s penalty trouble - scoring three times during a five-minute power play to cap off the lopsided victory.
First of the season! pic.twitter.com/49BgH0ZevR
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) February 16, 2026
The damage came from up and down Charlotte’s lineup. When the dust settled 16 of the Checkers’ 18 skaters found the score sheet and nine of them posted multi-point games - led by a three-point outing from Ben Steeves.
While the offense was stealing the show, Kirill Gerasimuyk was turning in a perfect showing between the pipes. The Russian rookie turned aside all 20 shots that he faced to add another shutout to his stat line.
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the play of Kirill Gerasimyuk, especially earlyHe was real good. The game before I thought they were the better team, they gained a lot of confidence, so the first five minutes were going to be important. Our goaltender bailed us out and allowed guys to find their game. The first five to six minutes, they were the better team, but we settled into it and took over that.
Kinnear on Charlotte’s scoring depth tonight
Some of those guys it took a little bit to get to their game, build the confidence. But I thought the focus was more about execution and allowing those guys to execute at a high level as the game wore on. It wasn’t pretty early. When you have four lines playing, we can score goals. But again, I look at it – I like the zero. The goaltending was good, the guys paid a price to keep the puck out of the net and blocked shots more tonight than we have in the past. I think that’s the reason why we were able to score.
Kinnear on Mitch Vande Sompel
You look at last year, he had to watch the group while going through the two shoulder surgeries. To be honest he had to watch at the start of this year when we had a lot of defensemen. But he;s a true pro. The group needs to understand how important the depth is. Huard comes in, Alscher comes in today, Marty comes in today, they’ve all played big roles. Kirill comes in. It’s so important to put the work in when you’re not in the lineup to be rewarded when you’re in. We need everybody. I’m so proud of that.
Kinnear on dealing with the game postponement
I know they’re an adaptable group. I think they were disappointed and they had a chance to redeem themselves yesterday. We had our meetings yesterday so maybe the key is no meetings, coach stays out of the way. But good on the leadership group. It started the game before, Twisty showing his leadership skills by stepping up and getting some emotion into the game. I know I downplayed it a little bit during that game because I don’t feel like it should be a guy stepping up for everyone to be competitive. I’m super proud of that group today to make sure the guys were ready to go.
Kinnear on the physicality of the game
There’s got to be accountability within our group to the other team. There’s a number of ways to do that, power play can be one of them. Good on the group for holding the other team accountable. We just worry about ourselves and pride ourselves on – whatever game the other team wants to play, we’re good with it.
Checkers defenseman Mitch Vande Sompel on scoring his first goal of the season after missing most of last season with injury
It’s something I’ve been through before so it wasn’t too crazy, but still, finding out you’re done in January is not really ideal. It’s a lot physically and mentally. Nobody sees what happens behind the scenes – you go home, have surgery, wait another six weeks, have another surgery, then get yourself back to playing shape and getting in the right mindset of playing. Especially with our team playing deep last year and seeing that, I’ve been in the league a long time and that’s all any of us ever want, to win a championship. Seeinfg that and not being able to be a part of it kind of stung. But it’s all a part of the process and it gives you a little bit of hunger to come back and maybe help the team get there this year.
Vande Sompel on this Checkers team
It’s a great hockey team in there. We’re extremely well coached. When we have our game we know what we’re capable of. Obviously in this league it’s tough to do every night, but we’re a tough team to beat when we’re playing our game.
