Remember the Charlotte Checkers? They could clinch a playoff series at home Saturday
You remember the Charlotte Checkers, don’t you?
It has been five weeks since the Checkers played a game at Bojangles Coliseum, but if you haven’t been keeping track, here’s some news …
The hockey season isn’t over.
In fact, the Checkers’ return to home ice could mark a playoff series-clinching victory.
Charlotte, which built a 2-0 lead in its best-of-5 series against the Bridgeport Islanders with a pair of come-from-behind road victories, will go for the clincher at 4 p.m. Saturday at Bojangles Coliseum.
A lot has happened since the Checkers last played a game in Charlotte.
They played their final five regular-season games on the road, winning three of those contests and clinching the No. 1 seed in the American Hockey League’s Atlantic Division. Charlotte’s regular season ended April 23, but for various reasons, the rest of the division didn’t finish until a week later.
Then the Checkers got a first-round Calder Cup playoff bye.
So there was a gap of 2 1/2 weeks between the end of the Checkers’ regular season and their 3-2 playoff victory Tuesday in Bridgeport. Then Charlotte rallied again and beat the Islanders 7-6 in double overtime Thursday night.
That sets the stage for Saturday’s return to Charlotte.
Saturday’s contest will be the first playoff hockey game in Charlotte since the Checkers beat the Chicago Wolves for the Calder Cup in 2019.
“Playing in Charlotte is great,” says Checkers’ defenseman Cale Fleury. “The fans have been great, and it will make a difference, playing at home.”
The Checkers didn’t play like a No. 1 seed for much of the season.
In fact, they were outside the playoff picture at the midpoint of the campaign, but Charlotte went on a torrid pace in the closing weeks of the season. The Checkers went 16-3-3 in their final 22 games, and head coach Geordie Kinnear says there’s a reason for the big finish.
“We got to the point where we consistently had five skaters in sync at all times on the ice,” Kinnear says. “And we had 20 guys pulling for them. We became a close-knit group.”
The Checkers actually are a combined team of two NHL franchises. Charlotte’s main major league affiliate is the Florida Panthers, but they’re also serving this season as top farm team for the new Seattle Kraken. Seattle will have its own AHL affiliate next season.
“We were meshing two organizations, and it took a while to come together,” Kinnear says. “We knew it would be a big challenge.
“Our first game this season, in Hershey, we had a club where nobody had played with each other at all. We had to build to where we are now.”
Kinnear says the long layoff showed Tuesday night, when Charlotte fell behind Bridgeport 2-0 before rallying.
“It wasn’t a great start, but we had a long layoff and I thought guys got better as the game wore on,” he said. “We knew it might take a little time to get up to speed.”
Center Alexander True says the Checkers were a different team after the opening 20 minutes Tuesday.
“We knew we had three weeks off, and it was just getting the first-game jitters out of the legs and out of our minds,” True says. “We were fine as a group, after the first period.”
Thursday’s tough battle was partly a result of young players learning on the fly.
“We have a lot of first-year guys who are getting their first playoff experience,” Kinnear says. “You talk about momentum, but until you go through it, you don’t really understand it. And there were a lot of momentum changes.”
Should the Checkers not win Game 3, they’ll have two more chances on home ice.
Game 4 would be at 7 p.m. Monday, with Game 5 at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Zac Dalpe, who scored the winning goal in the second overtime Thursday, says the momentum belongs to Charlotte now.
“They’re a good team,” Dalpe says of the Islanders. “So we can use this as momentum.”
“We’re going back to the best city on earth,” he adds.
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 5:56 PM.