The Florida Panthers are idle tonight as they prepare for Thursday’s homestand-opener versus the Washington Capitals, against the Carolina Hurricanes last night in Raleigh
Rewinding to the weekend, the Charlotte Checkers swept the Syracuse Crunch at Bojangles Coliseum to up its record to 6-4-1 on the season.
On Friday, rookie Jack Devine tallied twice in the third period to lead the Checkers to a 4-1 victory. Brian Pinho’s power-play goal, assisted by Devine, tied the tilt 19 seconds into the final frame. Devine scored the eventual game-winner 1:41 later, from Pinho and Nolan Foote, and then got the clincher into an empty net at 19:12. Riese Gaber notched a second empty-netter 30 seconds later to complete the scoring. Cooper Black stopped 17 of 18 shots to outduel Syracuse’s Ryan Fanti.
Saturday’s return match saw newcomer Kevin Mandolese make 28 saves to backstop the Checkers to a 3-2 win in his first appearance for the team. Colton Huard, MacKenzie Entwistle and Ben Steeves (GWG) scored the goals. Jake Livingstone finished with two assists and Devine, Pinho, Gaber and Liam McLinskey also contributed helpers.
The Checkers will play a back-to-back on the road against the Iowa Wild this weekend.
Stepan Gorbunov centered the first line and assisted on a pair of goals in Chelmet Chelyabinsk’s 6-0 rout over Omskie Krylia in Tuesday action from Russia’s VHL. Since moving down a tier from the KHL, Gorbunov has produced six points (2G/4A) in seven games with Chelmet.
Stepan Zvyagin was held off the score sheet in HC Dinamo-Molodechno’s 4-1 loss to HC Yunost-Minsk in action from the BETARA Extraleague in Belarus. Zvyagin leads his squad in scoring with 22 points in 23 games.
Tonight in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- New York Rangers (8-7-2 18P) at TAMPA BAY (8-5-2 18P) 7 p.m. (TNT, HBO max)
- BUFFALO (5-6-4 14P) at Utah (9-7-0 18P) 9 p.m.
Idle: MON (22P), BOS (22P), OTT (20P), DET (18P), FLA (17P), TOR (17P)