CHARLOTTE, NC – In front of a packed house on opening night, the Checkers battled through a back-and-forth contest to take a shootout victory over the Hershey Bears.
After Nicolas Roy opened the scoring early on, the teams traded tallies for the remainder of regulation. The whistles were out throughout the game, with the two squads combining for 69 penalty minutes and 15 total power plays, and the Bears took advantage by notching three goals on their eight man advantages.
That included an answer to Julien Gauthier’s late go-ahead goal with a tying tally by Lucas Johansen to send the game to overtime. The extra frame failed to produce a winner, so the Checkers move on to their first shootout of the season.
The Checkers went the rookie route in the shootout, tapping Morgan Geekie and Martin Necas as the first two shooters who both converted their chance. Alex Nedeljkovic, who finished the night with 10 saves on 13 shots, denied both of Hershey’s attempts to keep the Checkers’ perfect record intact.
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