The Florida Panthers are back in town. With the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center having Subtropical Storm Nicole making landfall further up the state, my guess is that tomorrow night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes at FLA Live Arena will take place as scheduled. A second option would be to swap home dates with the Canes and play the game in Raleigh with Florida taking over as the home team for the December 30th game between the two clubs. We’ll see what happens. If the storm continues to track north as the day goes on I’d be surprised if it gets postponed.
Over the weekend, the Charlotte Checkers (5-2-1-1 12P) played a pair of home games against the Springfield Thunderbirds and earned a split.
The Checkers took Friday’s game by a 3-2 with Zac Dalpe registering two of the goals including the game-winner. Logan Hutsko scored the other goal and Michael Del Zotto, Gerry Mayhew and goaltender Alex Lyon earned assists. Lyon finished with 25 saves to earn his second win of the season.
Saturday’s game saw the Thunderbirds blank Charlotte 4-0, but two of the goals were of the empty net variety. Mack Guzda got the start and stopped 24 shots. Del Zotto had a game-high five shots on goal and rookie Santtu Kinnunen registered four.
The Checkers will begin a six-game road trip when they take on the Providence Bruins on Friday.