Hitting the road for one last trip ripe with playoff implications, the Checkers powered their way past Providence, beating the Bruins 5-3 for their sixth consecutive victory.

A back and forth first didn’t see either side break through until Austin Czarnik notched a power-play tally 14 minutes in, but that strike seemed to wake up the Checkers, who responded with a pair of goals less than a minute apart to snag the lead through one period.

Things bounced around from that point, with the two clubs trading tallies until the Bruins knotted the score at three early on in the third. The Checkers pushed back from then on, however, and regained the lead minutes later thanks to a far-side snipe by the pinching defenseman Trevor Carrick. The Checkers would cling to that advantage down the stretch and extend it in the final minute, with Lucas Wallmark catching a Greg McKegg feed and delivering a dagger to the back of the net to clinch the 5-3 win for Charlotte.

NOTES

The win pushes the Checkers ahead of Providence and into the third spot in the Atlantic Division … The Checkers have now won six games in a row and earned a point in nine straight, both of which are their longest streaks of the season … The Checkers move to 3-1-0-1 against the Bruins this season, winning the season series … Valentin Zykov scored his 33rd goal of the season to move back into the league lead … Lucas Wallmark led all skaters with three points … Zykov extended his point streak to nine games … Haydn Fleury scored his first goal at the NHL or AHL level this season tonight … By going 2-for-5 on the man advantage tonight, the Checkers have scored seven power-play goals in their last four games … Jake Chelios and Alex Nedeljkovic missed the game due to injury … Clark Bishop, Nick Schilkey, Zack Stortini, Mike Ferrantino, Sergey Tolchinsky, Matt Finn and Dennis Robertson all served as healthy extras.

UP NEXT

The Checkers wrap up the regular season Sunday in Bridgeport with a 5 p.m. puck drop.