Lyon Shines, Morrison Nets Late Winner As Checkers Beat Bears

Details
It was a tight battle in Hershey for Charlotte’s road-trip finale on Saturday, but a stellar showing from Alex Lyon and a clutch tally from Cam Morrison lifted the Checkers over the Bears 3-1.

The final statline for Lyon showed 24 saves, but on more than one occasion the veteran goaltender stared down breakaways and Grade-A chances. He stood tall, however, and aside from the one blemish late in the first period, Lyon kept his squad in a position to claim the two points with a gem between the pipes.



SCORE SHEET
Both teams found the back of the net in the latter half of the opening frame - with Aleksi Heponiemi roofing a quick backhander to kick off his big three-point night - but those would prove to be the only offensive conversions until the waning minutes of regulation. Embarking on their fifth power play of the night, the Checkers would finally break through as Cam Morrison redirected a Santtu Kinnunen point shot in front and put the visitors on top with under six minutes remaining.



Hershey’s push down the stretch would be fruitless, and Riley Nash found the back of the empty net to deliver the final blow in Charlotte’s 3-1 dispatching of the Bears.

NOTES

The Checkers went 4-1-0-0 on this post-holiday break road trip … Charlotte is now 3-1-0-0 against Hershey this season … Alex Lyon has wins in three of his last four starts and has made at least 23 saves in three straight appearances … Aleksi Heponiemi matched his career high and recorded his first three-point game of the season … Heponiemi has a point in seven of his last nine games … Santtu Kinnunen extended his point streak to four games … Riley Nash extended his point streak to three games … Cam Morrison has points in back-to-back games, his first point streak of the season … The Checkers were perfect on the penalty kill for the second straight game … The Checkers have allowed two or fewer goals in six of their last seven games - all of which were wins … Zach Uens, Logan Hutsko, Justin Sourdif, Tag Bertuzzi, Serron Noel and J-F Berube were the scratches for Charlotte