Charlotte came out of the gates firing, with Ben Steeves and Nicholas Zabaneh each lighting the lamp before the midway point of the opening frame. Justin Sourdif pulled off a smooth redirect to close out the period strong, and while the Bruins were finally able to break the ice early in the second, Jesse Puljujarvi caught a long stretch pass and buried a breakaway chance to push the home team ahead 4-1 with six minutes to go in the second.
Providence punched back at that point, though, cashing in on a power-play opportunity 44 seconds after Puljujarvi’s tally and then striking once more 43 seconds after that to narrow Charlotte’s advantage down to a single goal.
The Checkers wasted no time reestablishing their lead thanks to Wilmer Skoog, as he capped off that wild stretch of play with a snipe less than a minute later. With momentum back on their side, Charlotte settled things down in the third, as Trevor Carrick potted the team’s sixth goal on the night and Kaapo Kahkonen slammed the door en route to the 6-3 victory.
First as a Checker! pic.twitter.com/lIvYY1Xc99
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) March 25, 2025
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameI thought it was a gutsy effort, to be honest. You look at the schedule and the challenge of coming off a 12-day road trip and playing on a Tuesday after a long road trip with a lot of travel, I think we met the challenge today. A lot of toughness was shown throughout the group. You lose (Kyle Criscuolo), you’ve lost a lot of bodies. I’m really proud of the group for today.
Kinnear on coming back from a long road trip
I thought there were ebbs and flows to the game. A lot of them, to be honest with you, and I knew the energy was going to be an issue, but the bench was great. I think they all rallied around each other. We put some guys in the lineup with some fresh legs, and Zabaneh scored a big goal for us. Good for him, because you need depth in the end to be able to win and for guys to step up. I liked the way he stepped up for the group tonight.
Kinnear on getting close to clinching a playoff spot
To be honest, our focus is on winning the day. We want to play really good, winning hockey, so that’s our focus. Obviously you want to clinch first and move on from there, but we want to continue to play good hockey.
Kinnear on Kaapo Kahkonen
If you look on the road trip, the Rochester game against an elite scoring team. It was really a 1-0 hockey game and he had a lot to do with the zero. They scored one late in the (game), but he built a lot of confidence within our group. It’s the composure you want from your goalie and it’s how he makes the tough saves look easy. I thought he did that, and he did it tonight too.
Trevor Carrick on the game
It was a tough one for us tonight. Being on the road for 12-13 days there and playing some hard-fighting hockey then coming back against a good team like Providence. It was a huge one for us.
Carrick on playing Providence for the first time this season
It's kind of nice getting a new challenge, a new team and some new faces. You play a lot of the same team quite a bit, so it’s a good test for us to go into a game and to adjust to a different team and a different system and different players. I thought our team did a good job of that tonight. They’ve got some good offensive guys, and they play a heavy game. It was different, but I thought we adjusted well.
Carrick on having the opportunity to clinch a playoff spot tomorrow
Every game coming in matters. Our division is so tight and every game matters. It’s kind of nice getting into that playoff-type mentality going into playoffs, and obviously you want to get that highest seed you can and potentially a bye. We’re still playing some meaningful hockey even though there are some good teams left, so we’re trying to get that second place and creep up on Hershey.
