Charlotte Checkers will open second round of AHL playoffs at home against Hershey

The Charlotte Checkers will play the first two games of their second-round American Hockey League playoff series on home ice.

The Checkers, who beat Lehigh Valley two games to one in the opening series, will face the Hershey Bears in a best-of-five second-round Calder Cup set.

Game 1 will be at 7 p.m. Friday and Game 2 at 6 p.m. Saturday – both at Bojangles Coliseum.

Games 3-5 will be played in Hershey, on May 3, 4 and 7.

Charlotte dropped the first game of its opening-round series 4-3 to Lehigh Valley but battled back with a 4-3 double-overtime victory in Game 2 and then a 6-0 rout Friday in Game 3. The Checkers scored five times in the second period of Friday’s contest. All three games in the first-round series were played in Charlotte.

The Checkers had a 5-3-0 record against Hershey during the regular season. The teams faced each other twice in Hershey on the final weekend of the regular season, with Hershey winning 5-2 on April 8 and the Checkers prevailing 4-3 on April 11.

The last time Charlotte and Hershey squared off in an AHL series was in 2019. The Checkers swept the Bears in four games, on route to a Calder Cup championship.