After playing their last five games on the road, the Charlotte Checkers returned to Bojangles Coliseum and swept a pair of games against the Iowa Wild over the weekend.
On Friday, the Checkers overcame a 2-1 first period deficit to beat the Wild by a 5-3 count. Veteran Rasmus Asplund snapped a 2-2 tie early in the third and tacked on an empty-netter with 13 seconds remaining. Rookie Marek Alscher notched the eventual game-winning goal and added an assist, and Ryan McAllister and Kyle Criscuolo scored the others goals for Charlotte. Riese Gaber, MacKenzie Entwistle, John Leonard, Matt Kiersted, Sandis Vilmanis, Oliver Okuliar, Tobias Bjornfot and Trevor Carrick were all credited with an assist. Chris Driedger made 25 saves to raise his record to 5-2-1.
Saturday saw the Checkers scored two power-play goals within a 57-second span early in the final frame to break open a scoreless draw en route to a 3-0 victory. Carrick got the only goal rookie Cooper Black would need at 3:11 with the assists going to Criscuolo and Vilmanis. Leonard added insurance at 4:08 with the helpers awarded to Carrick and Criscuolo. Patrick Giles would complete the scoring, lone assist to Leonard, with a shorthanded empty-net goal with 5:23 remaining as Iowa desperately tried to get back in the game. Black finished with 23 saves to post the first professional shutout of his career.
Charlotte upped its record to 10-4-1-2, good for third place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division. They will host a Friday/Saturday back-to-back against the Rochester Americans this weekend before embarking on a three-game road trip.