Charlotte Checkers’ early surge sends Hershey reeling in AHL 2nd-round opener

It was a defensive struggle, just as expected – except for the first 12 minutes.

The Charlotte Checkers bombarded the Hershey Bears with four early goals, then held on for a 4-1 victory Friday night in the opener of the team’s American Hockey League second-round series.

All the scoring was packaged into the opening 15 minutes, and the Checkers had a 2-0 lead before some of the 6,441 fans at Bojangles Coliseum had gotten comfortable in their seats.

Julien Gauthier got the scoring started, as he swept behind the Hershey defense and beat Vitek Vanecek, the AHL’s leading goalkeeper in the playoffs’ opening round, with a wrist shot just 1:42 into the game.

“It was huge, getting a goal that early and getting us started,” Gauthier said.

Then at the 3:56 mark, defenseman Derek Sheppard made the score 2-0 with a slap shot from, the right point.

“Part of our plan was to get some slap shots, to create some chaos inside,” Sheppard said.

Aleksi Saarela made the score 3-0 on a short rebound with 10:27 gone, and Stelio Mattheos scored a fourth goal just a minute later. Hershey got on the board on Chris McCarthy’s goal on a rebound with 15:38 elapsed.

And then a defensive struggle broke out. The Checkers outshot the Bears 38-26 in the game, but Vanecek and Charlotte goalkeeper Dustin Tokarski – getting the start because regular goalie Alex Nedeljkovic was with the Carolina Hurricanes – pitched shutouts.

“Obviously, we want to get goals early,” Checkers’ coach Mike Vellucci said. “We got four goals on our first eight shots, and we worked for those.

“All the things you talk about doing to get goals – we did them.”

Vellucci said Charlotte’s warm weather had an impact on the game, as the heat created a rather soft ice surface. That, in turn, was tiring for players.

“With it being 85 outdoors, the ice was a bit slow,” he said. “So we used four lines, and they all contributed.”

3 who mattered

Dustin Tokarski (Charlotte): The Checkers’ backup goaltender made 25 saves, including 11 in the first period, when Hershey pressured Charlotte several times.

Aleksi Saarela (Charlotte): Saarela had a goal and an assist.

Vitek Vanecek (Hershey): He shut out Charlotte over the game’s final 48½ minutes, making a number of spectacular saves. Problem was, he gave up four early goals.

Worth mentioning

▪ The Carolina Hurricanes completed a four-game sweep of the New York Islanders on Friday night to clinch a spot in the Eastern Conference finals. The Canes, however, won’t start that series for several days. So after their win, the Hurricanes sent goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic back to Charlotte. The Canes called up Nedeljkovic after Pete Mrazek went down with an injury this past week.

▪ The game had been decided by then, but a fight that broke out with three seconds remaining could have an impact on the series. The Checkers’ Sheppard and three Hershey players received misconducts, including an abuse-of-officials penalty called against the Bears’ Nathan Walker. Some or all of those could result in suspensions.

▪ The Checkers’ Andrew Poturalski was the top-scoring player in the first round of the playoffs, with nine points. Hershey had the No. 1 and No. 3 goalkeepers, in Vanicek and Ilya Samsonov. Poturalski got an assist Friday night.

▪ The game was preceded by a moment of silence for victims of this week’s shootings at UNC Charlotte. The Checkers had offered free tickets Friday for students and staff at the school.

They said it

▪ “We know we’re going to get push-back from them tomorrow night. We’ve got to be ready for it.” – Checkers’ winger Julien Gauthier.

What’s next?

The teams are at it again Saturday night, with faceoff for Game 2 at 6 p.m. at Bojangles Coliseum.

This story was originally published May 4, 2019 at 1:51 AM.