Spencer Knight, down from the NHL as he makes his way back from injury, stopped all 23 shots that he faced to pick up the shutout - his third in 12 career AHL appearances.
The Charlotte offense certainly helped lighten the load for Knight. After heading into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead courtesy of Anton Levtchi, the Checkers erupted in the middle frame for a staggering seven goals to blow things open, then tacked on one more in the third for good measure.
Thirteen different skaters found the scoresheet for Charlotte and seven posted multi-point efforts. It was the trio of Riley Nash, Aleksi Heponiemi and Connor Bunnaman who led the way, however - Nash matched a career-best with a four-point outburst, Heponiemi tallied three helpers and Bunnaman added a goal and two assists.
Had to dress sharp for the occasion ? pic.twitter.com/U5puYlnVAX
— Charlotte Checkers (@CheckersHockey) January 21, 2023
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameI liked a lot of stuff. We asked them for a few things yesterday and talked about it today again, and we ended up getting it. It was good. We’re not going to be a team that looks behind us. We’re looking ahead, and it’s going to be a really tough game tomorrow.
Kinnear on having days off to reset during the week
I don’t believe in resets – I believe in keep building. We talked all week that we want to get better individually and collectively. I liked a lot of guys today and I liked how the group played. We’re not in a reset, we’re just build, build, build.
Kinnear on the offensive showing
Obviously we haven’t scored a lot of goals this year. There’s been a lot of one-goal games, but we had four lines going. We had discipline, we weren’t in the box a lot tonight and we want to continue to move forward with having that disciplined hockey and scoring goals the right way. I thought we did that today.
Kinnear on Spencer Knight
He was real good. He had that big save in the second to keep it at zero, which is what we want. Obviously he’s been here before and he’s a world-class goalie, but you always like when guys come down and play very well, and he came down with a great attitude and played very well. He’s part of the whole group, which is what you want in an organization.
Spencer Knight on his return from injury
I felt good. Today I just tried to focus on just coming in, having fun and playing the game. In the past couple of months I’ve been too hard on myself. I just wanted to go out there and have fun. Guys were having a good time just working hard.
Knight on his approach to this game
I always said that each game is different. I just come to the rink and do the same thing the next day or whatever it is. Whether it’s practice, a morning skate, a game or whatever – just go out there and have fun. Every day is a new day.
Knight on building from this game
I just love playing the game. It doesn’t really matter where I am, whether it’s the NHL or the AHL. I love playing the game and I’m really fortunate to have such a great organization and a great team up in Florida. Down here it’s an awesome group of guys and just really easy to come in. It’s like I’ve been here for months. Just gelled really quickly and it’s a lot of fun.
