It took some time for the offense to kick in, but Janne Kuokkanen opened the season’s scoring with a power-play marker late in the first, followed seconds later by a seeing-eye point shot from Roland McKeown to double the Charlotte advantage going into the second.
The home team punched back in the middle frame, evening the score with a pair of their own, but Kuokkanen connected on an odd-man rush with Nicolas Roy to put the Checkers back on top 3-2 through 40 minutes of play.
The Checkers hit their stride in the third period and pulled away from the Americans, with Kuokkanen notching his second of the night just 72 seconds in followed by Andrew Poturalski pulling of a beautiful toe drag through traffic to extend the lead to three goals before the four minute mark even hit. Charlotte’s power play tacked on one more in the third for good measure, with Roy netting his second goal of the game to seal a lopsided 6-2 victory for the visiting Checkers.
Alex Nedeljkovic was called upon for the start, stopping 22 of the 24 attempts he was faced with, while the Checkers peppered Rochester netminder Scott Wedgewood with 39 shots on the night.