The Charlotte Checkers were swept by the Hershey Bears over the weekend at Bojangles Coliseum, dropping the Florida Panthers AHL affiliate to seventh place in the Atlantic Division.
On Friday, the visiting Bears jumped out to a two-goal lead after one period of play on goals by Riley Sutter and Ivan Miroshnichenko.
Patrick Khodorenko tallied from Lucas Carlsson and Alexander True to halve the deficit 7:01 into the second.
Hershey’s Pierrick Dubé scored twice within a 6:07 span to put the Bears up 4-1 after forty minutes.
Florida’s top prospect Mackie Samoskevich notched his third of the season from Khodorenko after a turnover to complete the scoring 2:49 into the third.
Spencer Knight took the loss, giving up the four goals on 24 shots to fall to 5-4 on the season.
In Saturday’s rematch, the Bears skated to 5-2 victory, running off four consecutive goals after Charlotte opened the scoring.
Uvis Balinksis, playing in his first-ever AHL game, put the Checkers ahead by beating Clay Stevenson from just above the right circle 6:12 into the first after taking a crossing pass from Samoskevich. The second assist on the goal went to veteran Rasmus Asplund.
Samoskevich’s second point of the weekend gave him 10 in 16 games played.
Aaron Ness tied the tilt 4:41 into the second before Ethan Frank scored twice in a span of 4:49 to give Hershey a two-goal cushion.
Joe Snively, who assisted on Ness’ goal, extended the lead early in the third period.
Lucas Carlsson stopped the bleeding with his eighth of the season at the 6:41 mark with the lone assist going to Skyler Brind’Amour before Frank completed his hat trick into an empty net with 2:03 left in the game.
Ludovic Waeber stopped 16 of 20 shots in a losing effort.
After the game, Balinskis was recalled by the Panthers.
The Checkers (10-9) will kick off a four-game road trip on Friday night against the Rochester Americans.