The Checkers went into Hershey one last time during the regular season and denied the Bears a shot at history by taking them down 4-1.

Reversing their fortunes from Wednesday night’s matchup, the Checkers came roaring out of the gates in Saturday’s rematch. Mackie Samoskevich started things off by finishing a slick two-on-one play with Rasmus Asplund before five minutes had even passed in regulation, then Will Lockwood doubled that lead less than a minute later by hammering home a quick feed from Justin Sourdif.



Locking down on their two-goal advantage, Charlotte’s defense took center stage from there and kept the high-powered Bears at bay for the majority of regulation - powered in part by a stellar 24-save showing from Spencer Knight. Hershey finally broke through with an extra attacker inside the final two minutes of play, but back-to-back empty netters from Alexander True and Zac Dalpe snuffed out the Bears’ rally attempt and sealed a victory for the visitors.

NOTES

The Checkers have won three of their last five meetings with Hershey and ended the season series with a 3-5-0-0 record head-to-head … Hershey needed one point to claim the best points percentage in AHL history … The Checkers have not lost more than two straight in regulation since January … The Checkers are perfect on the penalty kill over the last two games and have successfully killed 22 of their last 24 times shorthanded over the last six games … Lockwood has points in back-to-back games … Samoskevich extended his point streak to six games and has nine (4g, 5a) points over that run … Knight has allowed one or fewer goals in five of his last six starts … Rookie Cooper Black, who is on a PTO with Charlotte, dressed for the first time as Knight’s back up … Ryan McAllister, Kai Schwindt, Riley Bezeau, Brendan Perlini, Ben Steeves, Evan Nause, Dennis Cesana, Mack Guzda and Magnus Hellberg were the scratches for Charlotte