The Charlotte Checkers climbed into fifth place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division by sweeping the Cleveland Monsters at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse over the weekend.
After a scoreless first period in Friday’s opener, the Monsters jumped out to a 3-0 lead on second period goals from Brendan Gaunce, Samuel Knazko and Jake Christiansen.
Skyler Brind’Amour started the comeback by scoring from in close with the assists going to Cameron Morrison and Casey Fitzgerald 2:34 into the third.
Morrison notched a goal of his own 3:48 later, from defensemen Matt Kiersted and Santtu Kinnunen, to pull the Checkers within one.
Wilmer Skoog slung a wrister by Jet Greaves from just above the right circle to tie the score at the 10:40 mark. Uvis Balinskis and Mackie Samoskevich collected the helpers on Skoog’s seventh,
Florida’s top prospect Samoskevich would notch the game-winner with 1:53 left in overtime. After Samsokevich threw the puck in front off the rush, he rounded the net to reclaim it and fired home his 12th of the season to give Charlotte the extra point.
Evan Cormier, just recalled from the Florida Everblades, stopped 32 shots to pick up his first AHL win of the year.
On Saturday, the Checkers took control early and Spencer Knight made 26 saves as Charlotte posted a 4-1 victory over the top team in the North Division.
Undrafted free agent Ryan McAllister opened the scoring from Patrick Khodorenko and Zac Dalpe 4:24 after the opening puck drop.
Skoog redirected McAllister pass past Pavel Cajan 3:15 later to put the Checkers up by two. Balinskis got the secondary assist on the power-play goal.
After Trey Fix-Wolansky halved the deficit 1:21 into the second, Kiersted notched his third of the season from Samoskevich and Justin Sourdif at 9:46.
Sourdif sniped Cajan with 1:03 left in the frame to extended the lead. Fitzgerald and Lucas Carlsson drew the assists on Sourdif’s ninth goal.
Knight would stop all 12 third period shots faced to lock down his 15th win of the campaign.
The Checkers (23-20-4) will open a four-game homestand with a pair of games against the Springfield Thunderbirds this weekend.