Propelling the offensive outburst was a banner night from Brenden Perlini, who lit the lamp three times to collect the hat trick. The veteran forward set the tone early when he launched a laser from the right circle to convert on a Charlotte man advantage less than three minutes into play, opening the scoring and seizing the momentum for his team.
Perlini makes them pay on the early power play! pic.twitter.com/rOTT5VyzZj
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) December 9, 2023
Riley Bezeau would follow up with a beauty of a breakaway tally later in the first frame, negating the Amerks’ opening tally moments before and claiming a lead for the visitors through 20. Things would slow down for both sides from there, and after a scoreless middle frame the Checkers remained on top by a narrow margin.
Charlotte really broke things open in the third, and it was Perlini who kicked that offensive explosion off - collecting a breakaway feed from Gerry Mayhew and sliding around Amerks netminder Dustin Tokarski to extend his squad’s lead.
The floodgates would open from there. Will Lockwood pulled off a slick move of his own to beat Tokarski and make it 4-1 in the back half of the period, then Perlini followed up with a deposit into the empty net to complete his trio of tallies. Not content to coast from there, the Checkers tacked on one more in the waning moments of play courtesy of Mayhew, and the blowout victory came to end with the score settled at 6-1.
He's heating up! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/kO909q5VXA
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) December 9, 2023
Spencer Knight came up big when called upon Friday night, shaking off the Amerks’ first-period strike and frustrating the home side for the remainder of regulation. That included going perfect on a 10-shot third period that saw Rochester mount a rally attempt that was ultimately shut down by the young netminder.
