The Checkers locked into a tight battle in their weekend finale against the Thunderbirds, but some clutch goals and stellar play between the pipes would lift them to a hard-fought 2-1 road victory.
Sixty minutes of regulation and another five of overtime still left the two sides deadlocked at one, so the Sunday contest proceeded to a shootout. Angus Crookshank led off for the visitors and blew a shot by Springfield netminder Will Cranley.
As it turns out, that would be all the Checkers needed. Kirill Gerasimyuk slammed the door on all three of the Thunderbirds’ attempts - including a sprawling stop on Nikita Susuyev in the bottom of the third to clinch the win for his team.
Across the 65 minutes of play Gerasimyuk turned aside 25 of the 26 shots he faced, with the lone blemish being a shorthanded strike midway through the second that opened the scoring and gave Springfield a lead heading into the third period. The Checkers - who outshot the Thunderbirds on the night 33-26 - finally broke through themselves early on in the third, when Cole Schwindt pulled off an impressive individual to fire off a shot while falling to his knees and beat Cranley to even the score. That deadlock would hold for the remainder of regulation and the overtime frame, setting the stage for Charlotte’s shootout triumph to close out the road trip.
NOTES
The Checkers went 1-1-0-0 over the weekend road trip and are 2-2-0-0 this season … The Checkers killed Springfield’s only power play and are still perfect on the penalty kill this season … This was Charlotte’s first shootout of the season. Last season it was 3-0 in games ending in a shootout … Gerasmiyuk is a perfect 8-for-8 in the shootout in the AHL across the last two seasons … Charlotte’s last shootout loss was on Feb. 28, 2025 … Schwindt’s goal was his first in a Checkers sweater since April 8, 2022 … The Checkers have scored five goals over the last 185 minutes of play … Kai Schwindt, Will Bitten, Brian Pinho, Brett Chorske, Kasper Lundell, MacKenzie Entwistle, Philip Tresca, Samu Salminen, Casey Fitzgerald, Mitch Vande Sompel, Mikulas Hovorka, Emil Pieniniemi and Matyas Man were the scratches for Charlotte
