A lopsided second period was the difference in the Checkers’ Sunday-afternoon visit to Hershey, where they fell to the Bears 4-3.
After Hershey opened the scoring in the early stages of the first, Will Bitten cut through the slot and fired a puck past Hershey netminder Cal Petersen to even the score minutes later. That deadlock would hold through the first intermission, then it was Charlotte’s red-hot power play that would break through once again - this time courtesy of a Nate Smith redirection.
That lead would only last for 30 seconds before Hershey’s Jonny Brodzinski took over and tilted the ice in his team’s favor. The veteran forward lit the lamp three times inside of a 10-minute span in the middle frame, securing a natural hat trick and blowing the game wide open.
Things tightened back up in the third period, and a tally from Sam Lafferty put the Checkers within one goal with just over eight minutes to play. The equalizer never materialized, though, and the clock eventually ran out on Charlotte’s comeback attempt.
NOTES
The Checkers have alternated wins and losses over their last five games … Alex Petrovic skated in his 500th AHL game and Nate Bastian skated in his 200th AHL game … The Checkers are 1-2-0-0 against the Bears this season … Charlotte has scored a power-play goal in eight straight games … Cooper Black has made at least 25 saves in all six of his starts this season … Jack Devine extended his point streak to five games … Smith has goals in three straight games … Johnny Beecher has assists in back-to-back games … Lafferty has goals in back-to-back games … Alex Petrovic picked up two assists for his third multi-point effort in the last seven games … Angus Crookshank, Gracyn Sawchyn, Brian Pinho, MacKenzie Entwistle, Samu Salminen, Ludvig Jansson, Mitch Vande Sompel and Marek Alscher were the scratches for Charlotte
