The surging Checkers showed no signs of slowing down Wednesday night, thrashing the Phantoms by a 6-2 score to pick up another series sweep.
Tomas Jurco set the tone right off the bat when he cut through the Lehigh Valley defense and opened the scoring just 20 seconds after the opening faceoff and it was all Checkers from there. Morgan Geekie punched a loose puck through a mass of bodies minutes later to double the lead, then Jake Bean unleashed a one-timer to give Charlotte a three-goal advantage before the first buzzer. 
The Phantoms would finally break through late in the first to show some signs of life, but Charlotte’s power play propelled the home squad back ahead from there. Patrick Brown netted the lone goal of the middle frame, powering home a puck from down low for his 18th of the season, then Martin Necas kicked off the third by launching a one-time goal from his new favorite firing spot – the left circle.
Lehigh Valley had one more rally attempt in them but it was squashed out by an empty-net conversion from Steven Lorentz and that would seal the deal for Charlotte. Dustin Tokarski kept his pristine record perfect as he recorded 22 saves in another winning effort.
QUOTES
Assistant Coach Ryan Warsofsky on the team playing hard down the final stretch of the regular season
Our mindset since day one is that no matter what the score is, we’re going to compete and play the right way. We’ve got to be proud of our guys because they’re not looking at the standings. They’re just putting their heads down and going to work.
