The Checkers closed out the home portion of their regular season schedule with a bang, shutting out Springfield 5-0 to earn a weekend split.
Roland McKeown kicked things off just 38 seconds in when he hammered home a drop-pass from Martin Necas, and that would open the floodgates for Charlotte’s offense. Four different Checkers notched multi-point games, including Aleksi Saarela, who hung Springfield netminder Samuel Montembeault out to dry for his 29th goal of the year and set up Morgan Geekie for a dagger late in the second. Martin Necas netted a pair of helpers, one of which was a power-play feed to Julien Gauthier in front that was nearly identical to their connection last night.
Between the pipes Dustin Tokarski stayed perfect with his new squad, making 20 saves to pick up his first shutout in a Charlotte sweater.
The second meeting between Charlotte and Springfield in as many nights featured plenty of physical play, especially early on. Zack Stortini and Derek Sheppard both dropped the gloves in the opening frame as the Thunderbirds rode their way to 50 penalty minutes in the game
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