The Checkers reversed their fortunes in Saturday’s rematch with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, striking down the Penguins 4-1 behind two goals from Patrick Khodorenko and a big night from Mack Guzda.
Just like the night before, the first 20 minutes were a scoreless deadlock. This time it would be the Checkers who broke through, however, as Rasmus Asplund buried a wrister from the slot early on in the second and Khodorenko doubled the lead late with a slick redirect of a Santtu Kinnunen feed.
The Checkers clamped down on their advantage in the third, and Will Lockwood gave them some insurance midway through as he jammed home a loose puck on the power play. The Penguins eventually found the back of the net with under four minutes to play, but Khodorenko quickly threw water on any comeback hopes with an empty-net dagger just seconds later to seal Charlotte’s first victory of the season.
Guzda put together a gem of a performance between the pipes for the home side, stopping 32 of the 33 shots he faced in his first start of the season. The second-year-netminder also played a big role in the Checkers shutting down the Penguins’ power-play unit, which went 0-for-4 on the night.
