Five different players scored goals and Alex Nedeljkovic turned in a strong 26-save effort as the Checkers avenged the previous night’s loss with a 5-2 victory in Lehigh Valley on Saturday.
With the Checkers trailing 1-0 late in the second period, Nicolas Roy got his team going with his sixth goal of the season and his club would not look back from there, scoring five of the next six goals to take the victory.
The game was closer than the final score suggests, with the Checkers leading just 2-1 until Foegele scored his 17th goal of the season, second among AHL rookies and tied for fourth in the league overall, to make it 3-1 with 2:30 to play. A flurry of goals followed, with the Phantoms grabbing one back before Andrew Poturalski and Patrick Brown each bagged an empty-net goal.
Aleksi Saarela scored Charlotte’s other goal shortly after Roy’s in the second period during a two-man advantage that resulted from Maxim Lamarche’s boarding major against Poturalski. Lamarche earned a game misconduct on the play.
NOTES
The Checkers out-shot the Phantoms 43-28, tying their season high for shots in a single game ... Roy’s goal gave him seven points (2g, 5a) in his last six games ... Roy fought Lamarche following his hit on Poturalski, leaving him an assist short of the Gordie Howe Hat Trick ... Mike Ferrantino assisted on Roy’s goal, giving him five points (2g, 3a) in eight games this season. He sat as a healthy extra for the other 26 contests ... Saarela has five goals in his last five outings ... Andrew Miller assisted on Saarela’s goal, giving him at least one point in 12 of his last 13 games (3g, 14a) ... Defensive partners Philip Samuelsson and Roland McKeown each posted a plus-4 rating. Samuelsson now ranks second in the AHL at plus-25, while McKeown is fourth at plus-21 ... Forwards Mitchell Heard and Steven Lorentz made their season debuts for the Checkers. Lorentz also made his AHL debut ... Forward Sergey Tolchinsky missed the game due to injury and forward Valentin Zykov missed out due to illness ... Forward Zack Stortini and defenseman Josiah Didier were healthy extras.
UP NEXT
A three-game road trip now concluded, the Checkers will return home for a few days before traveling to Hershey to face the Bears next weekend.
