Tom McCollum has been named CCM/AHL Goaltender of the Month for March after backstopping the Checkers into the playoff race.
The 27-year-old netminder joined the Checkers on loan from Calgary at the AHL trade deadline and made his debut in a Charlotte sweater on March 10, stopping a career-high 49 of 50 shots to pick up a win over Manitoba.
McCollum would go on to start each of the next eight games in March, finishing the month with a 7-1-1 record, including one shutout, a goals-against average of 1.88 and a .935 save percentage.
This is the first Goaltender of the Month award for McCollum, a veteran of 236 AHL games over his eight-year career, and the first such award won by a Checkers goalie in franchise history. A first-round selection by Detroit in 2008, McCollum joins Zach Boychuk in 2013-14 (Player of the Month) and Lucas Wallmark (Rookie of the Month) earlier this season as the only Checkers to earn a monthly award from the AHL.
