The Florida Panthers AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers bounced back from a 5-2 loss to the Hershey Bears on Saturday by beating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-1 on Sunday to split its first two road games of the 2021-22 AHL season.
On Saturday, the Checkers got goals from Aleksi Heponiemi and Seattle Kraken prospect Alex True in the opener for both teams. Logan Hutsko drew the primary assist on both goals and Max Gildon and Max McCormick also collected helpers. Christopher Gibson gave up five goals on 29 shots in the loss.
After a scoreless first period at Mohegan Sun Arena, Lucas Carlsson and Alex True staked the Checkers to a two-goal lead after forty minutes. Max McCormick put the Checkers up by three and veteran Zac Dalpe iced the 4-1 win with an empty-net goal with 12 seconds remaining. Assists during the game went to Chase Priskie, Carlsson, True, Logan Hutsko and Maxim Mamin, Seattle’s Joey Daccord stopped 26 of 27 shots to get the win.
The Checkers will open its home slate on Friday with a back-to-back against the Bears.