After dropping a pair of games against Hartford during the week, the Charlotte Checkers bounced back with a 5-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms last night at Bojangles Coliseum.
Brian Pinho scored the final two goals of the game and added an assist and Mitchell Vande Sompel, Noah Gregor and Jack Devine lit the lamp in the first period.
Nate Smith, Ben Steeves, Tobias Björnfot, Gregor and Ludvig Jansson were credited with assists.
Cooper Black stopped 23 of 24 shots to post his 23rd win of the season.
The two teams will meet again this afternoon.
Tyler Muzselik stopped 23 of 25 shots faced but took the loss as favored Connecticut fell 2-1 to Merrimack in the final of the Hockey East tournament. Defenseman Brendan Dunphy registered one shot on goal, took a first period hooking penalty and finished with a minus-one rating.
Prospect Matvei Shuravin skated on the first defense pairing in Krasnaya Armiya’s 4-1 loss to MHC Spartak in action from Russia’s MHL. Shuravin has two goals and an assist in 15 games at the junior level.
Sunday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- TAMPA BAY (43-21-4 90P) at Calgary (28-34-7 63P) 8 p.m.
- BUFFALO (44-20-6 94P) at Los Angles (28-25-16 72P) 8 p.m.
Idle: MON (86P), BOS (86P), DET (84P), OTT (81P), FLA (71P), TOR (71P)