The Charlotte Checkers sport a 2-2 record after splitting a road back-to-back with the Toronto Marlies over the weekend.
On Saturday, Charlotte posted a 3-2 victory at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Spencer Knight made 29 saves to collect his first win of the season.
Patrick Giles opened the scoring with his first of the campaign with an unassisted goal from the top of the right circle at the six-minute mark.
Joseph Blandisi scored at 12:27, from Max Ellis and Topi Niemela, and then set up Joseph Slavin’s shorthanded goal at 17:11 to give the Marlies the lead going into the first break.
Mike Benning took a pass from Ryan McAllister and beat Dennis Hildeby with a long wrister to tie the game with at 6:45 of the second with Charlotte up a man. Alexander True collected the second assist on Benning’s first professional goal.
The Checkers forged ahead 1:59 later when another defenseman, Lucas Carlsson, notched his first of the season. Carlsson moved into the high slot and ripped a Mackie Samoskevich feed past Hildeby for the eventual game-winner. The secondary assist went to Santtu Kinnunen, his fifth helper of the season.
Toronto would bounce back to take Sunday’s game by a 4-2 count.
Niemela got the only goal of the first period when solved Mack Guzda at 12:49 from Zack Solow and Slavin.
Alex Steeves doubled the lead with goal at 6:04 of the second, with the assists going to Ellis and Ryan Tverberg.
Riley Bezeau halved the deficit at 14:27 with an unassisted shot that beat Martin Jones from an unlikely angle.
A power-play goal by captain Zac Dalpe squared the contest 2:45 into the final frame. After taking a pass from Santtu Kinnunen, Rasmus Asplund knifed through two Marlies and sent the puck through two more to an open Dalpe in front. Jones was able to poke the puck away, but the veteran was able to backhand the bounce off his body into the net.
A roughing call on Benning proved costly when Nick Robertson lit the lamp at 11:10 with ten seconds left on the man-advantage to put Toronto back on top. The assists on Robertson’s third were credited to Nick Abruzzese and former Panther Logan Shaw.
Shaw picked up another helper when he was part of Blandisi’s game-clinching empty-netter. Kyle Clifford drew the primary assist.
Guzda finished the game with 21 saves on 24 shots. Like Knight, his record stands at 1-1.
The Checkers will conclude the three-game road trip when they face the Rochester Americans on Wednesday.