Tired Charlotte Checkers have big prize within sight: Calder Cup Finals berth

An ailing Charlotte Checkers team will try Sunday night to become the Queen City’s first pro sports franchise in three-plus years to play for a league championship.

Standing in their way is a tired, battered Toronto Marlies team whose players say they enjoy playing in Charlotte.

Game 6 in the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference finals series is set for 7 p.m. at Bojangles’ Coliseum. A Checkers victory would send them into the Calder Cup Finals, against the West winner – either Chicago or San Diego. If a seventh game is needed, it would be at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Charlotte.

The last Charlotte team to play for a league title was the Carolina Panthers, in the 2016 Super Bowl.

The Checkers took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series Friday night by stunning the Marlies 4-1, even through Toronto outshot Charlotte 41-24 and kept the pressure on the Checkers for much of the game.

“It wasn’t a very good hockey game,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Both teams looked tired. Having said that, they (Checkers) played a smart game.”

Sunday’s game will be the sixth in 10 days for the two teams, who had a one-week break between the second round and the Eastern finals.

Charlotte coach Mike Vellucci tried to deal with that Friday by moving some new faces, like Stello Mattheos and Steven Lorentz, into the lineup. They both responded nicely, with Mattheos stealing the puck early in the second period and passing it to Lorentz, who scored a short-handed goal. That put Charlotte ahead to stay 2-1.

The Checkers added another short-handed goal in the third period, and their fourth goal was essentially short-handed, as Toronto had pulled its goaltender for an extra skater.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who aren’t feeling great and are injured, and these guys came in,” Vellucci said of the new faces. “A big part of it is they stayed in condition and competed hard in practice. When it wasn’t glamorous or fun, they did the little things that made them able to play this well tonight.”

The Marlies won Game 1 in Charlotte and were leading 3-0 in Game 2, before Charlotte rallied for a 5-3 victory. And the Marlies won both regular-season games at the coliseum. That has given them some confidence.

“We can win one game, and then go win two in Charlotte,” Marlies winger Trevor Moore said. “It’s a place we’ve played well in. We can do it again.”

But Charlotte defenseman Haydn Fleury said the Checkers also like playing at home.

“We’re very comfortable in our rink,” he said. “Let’s take this momentum back there and get it done.”

Worth mentioning

▪ The Checkers were minus three regulars Friday night, with Dan Renouf injured, and Tomas Jurco and Martin Necas suffering from some type of virus.

▪ Charlotte’s sultry late-May weather has caught the attention of Marliers players. “It’s definitely hot down there,” forward Trevor Moore said with a laugh Friday night.

▪ Backup goaltender Dustin Tokarski improved his season record with Charlotte to 10-0 Friday night. His 40 saves tied for the most by a Checkers goaltender in a game this season – an April 12 game in Cleveland, when Tokarski also was in goal.

▪ Before this series, Toronto had scored on 40 percent of its power play opportunities. Against Charlotte, the Marlies have scored on 15 percent (3-of-20). “Give them credit – they’re the No. 1 penalty-kill team in the league,” Keefe said. Both coaches say the key to Charlotte’s penalty-kill success happens near center-ice, where the Checkers disrupt the opponents’ momentum.

This story was originally published May 25, 2019 at 3:57 PM.