Charlotte Checkers top Providence Bruins, advance to third round of AHL playoffs

Charlotte Checkers coach Geordie Kinnear probably spoke for all of his team’s fans when a media member asked him if he was feeling good after Sunday afternoon’s 5-2 victory over Providence, which wrapped up an AHL first-round playoff series.

“I’m good now,” Kinnear said after his team had roared ahead 3-0, then saw the visiting Bruins get within 3-2 with four minutes left in the fifth and decisive game of the series. “In the playoffs, there’s no set path. You win two in Providence and you would’ve been happy with one and then you come home and lose two before winning this one.”

The Checkers advanced to the second round for the third time in six seasons with a strong start and finish.

In front of a partisan “Mother’s Day” crowd of 5,315 at Bojangles’ Coliseum, the Checkers fired 20 of the game’s first 21 shots to take a 2-0 lead.

Then, after going ahead 3-0 and seeing the Bruins rally within 3-2 with two third period goals, the Checkers closed out the victory with a pair of empty net goals in the final 1 minute, 8 seconds.

“They’re a good team and we knew we had to play hard in all five games,” said Charlotte’s Tobias Bjornfot, a 2019 NHL first-round draft pick who scored the Checkers’ first and fourth goals. “It’s tough to lose two at home, but today we played great.”

Bjornfot’s first goal came 7:18 into the opening period with assist help from Kyle Kriscoulo and Mikolus Hovorka. Wilmer Skoog (John Leonard assist) and Oliver Okuliar (Sandis Vilmanis and Skoog assists) scored early in the second and third periods to make it a seemingly comfortable 3-0 advantage.

But Providence, which had rallied from 2-1 deficits for back-to-back 3-2 victories in the first two games in Charlotte, scored twice in the next 12 1/2 minutes, the last on a power play.

When the Bruins pulled their goalie with 1:58 to play in a final, frantic push for the equalizer, Bjornfot and Will Lockwood knocked in empty net goals to wrap up the victory.

“That’s an elite hockey team over there when you look at their personnel,” Kinnear said of Providence. “They’ve got a lot of guys down from the NHL. Credit to Providence. It’s not easy being down 0-2 coming into someone else’s building.

“This was a great game and a building block for our group.”

Charlotte now meets the top-seeded Hershey Bears, who beat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 4-2 on Sunday for a 3-2 win in their series.

The best-of-five Atlantic Division championship series will open with back-to-back 7 p.m. games in Charlotte on Friday and Saturday before the last three games will be played at Hershey — 7 p.m. games on May 21, 22 and 24.

Three who made a difference

▪ Tobias Bjorfot, Charlotte: The 2019 Los Angeles Kings first-round draft pick who has also played in the NHL for the Florida Panthers had two goals to lead the Checkers’ offense.

▪ Kaapo Kahkonen, Charlotte: The Checkers’ goalie, who was an NHL trade deadline acquisition from the Winnipeg Jets, earned his second victory of the series.

▪ Wilmer Skoog, Charlotte: Skoog scored his third goal of the series in the middle of the second period.

Notable

▪ Charlotte’s 30-8 shot differential was impressive and historic. It’s the least number of shots allowed in an AHL game of any kind since Nov. 27, 2015, and the lowest in an AHL playoff game since April 21, 2010.

▪ Charlotte’s victory in the series-deciding finale improved its record to 3-4 all time in its modern history (since 1994) and was the second in three season; Charlotte won the decisive third game of a best-of-three series in 2023 over Lehigh Valley. The win also improved the Checkers to 45-37 in home playoff games in its modern era.

▪ Charlotte is in the third round of the AHL playoffs for the third time in their 13-year history in the league. In the Checkers’ inaugural AHL season of 2011, they were swept 4-0 by the Binghamton Senators. In 2019, when Charlotte won its seventh league championship, the Checkers beat the Toronto Marlies 4-2 before defeating the Chicago Wolves 4-1 to win the Calder Cup.

They said it

“I definitely wasn’t ready for this season to end. They’ve been a joy all year so I feel fresh and I think they do too. Having another week of practice and being together is huge and we’re not done yet.” — Charlotte coach Geordie Kinnear.

This story was originally published May 11, 2025 at 9:11 PM.