Riley Bezeau set the tone with a beauty of an opening tally, collecting a feed from Jesse Puljujarvi and pulling off a slick move to beat Laval netminder Cayden Primeau. That gave the Checkers a 1-0 advantage through 20 minutes, but the second period is where things really picked up for the home side.
John Leonard, Bezeau and Will Lockwood all lit the lamp within the first 5:14 of the middle frame to quickly balloon Charlotte’s lead and chase Primeau from the game. The Rocket broke through on a power play later in the period, but Sandis Vilmanis punched back before the buzzer with a quick shot off a rush to re-establish the four-goal lead.
The Checkers locked things up in the third, with Kaapo Kahkonen once again standing strong between the pipes and delivering 22 stops, and time ticked down until the conclusion of another lopsided victory for Charlotte.
LET'S GO pic.twitter.com/jKoUPAwxXa
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) June 1, 2025
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameI didn’t love some parts of the game, but I thought we stuck with it. Both teams were trying to feel it out a little bit. I think fatigue became a bit of a factor, but then we got going a little bit and scored some timely goals, and then I liked how we managed the third period better than we did in Laval.
Kinnear on getting five more goals
We have some goal scorers like Lenny, obviously that was a big goal, and Bezeau scored some big goals which brought a lot of energy to the group. It’s a lot of work ahead of us still, but I’m proud of the group and proud of the work. It’s not easy coming back against a really good hockey team, but the mental and physical toughness was important today.
Kinnear on the team’s shot-blocking commitment
I thought there was skin in the game for sure where guys were paying a price to keep the puck out of the net. We’ve done it all year, but he’s a big reason. He had a lot of touches and goalie handles and stuff like that today. He’s the calming influence back there, and I thought the guys did a good job in front of him.
Kinnear on Laval calling a timeout and pulling its goaltender
To be honest when you pull a goalie or call a timeout, you’re going to get a push from the other team. I thought we handled that really well, and then that next goal is big because as soon as you call a timeout if they come out and score, momentum gets shifted a little bit. I thought our guys did a good job after their timeout of continuing to play the same way, and then obviously we got the next one which is big.
Kinnear on moving on to Game 4 Tuesday
Our guys have done it all year. You can talk about it, but when you’ve done it all year and you know that as a group, I couldn’t be more proud of how consistent the group has been. They’ve done it all year. It’s a matter of going out and doing it. Again, it’s a super, really good team, the best team in the league, and we have our work cut out.
Riley Bezeau on his goals
I thought we just came out ready to go and guys were physical. I was just trying to go to the net there and (Puljujarvi) made two great plays. I didn’t really finish on the first (chance), but happy to get the second one and get the boys going.
Bezeau on getting contributions up and down the lineup
Team effort, right? Everyone is just pulling the rope and doing their job, just trying to win games.
Bezeau on the team blocking shots
That’s been at the forefront for us. Playoff hockey, you’ve got to do what it takes. If you’ve got to put your body on the line, that’s what we’ll do.
Bezeau on Game 4
That’s a great team. They finished first in their division, they’re not going to go away and we know that. We’ve just got to stick to our game plan and keep going.