Charlotte Checkers continue magical run, topple Hershey Bears in overtime

Rasmus Asplund’s goal-scoring renaissance has continued into the AHL playoffs, and the Charlotte Checkers couldn’t be happier.

Asplund, whose best goal-scoring season at any level prior to this season was 10 for the Rochester Americans in 2018-19, knocked in his 22nd and 23rd of the season, including playoffs, on Saturday night — the latter coming 3 minutes, 9 seconds into overtime — to lift Charlotte to a 2-1 win over the Hershey Bears and a 2-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-five Atlantic Division final series.

“I think it carried in from the third period,” Charlotte coach Geordie Kinnear said. “I didn’t really love the first half, but we made a couple of changes and then the guys started getting connected as a group and we started getting connected to our game. I think when you get that you play over and over with four lines like that, good things are happening. When we’re going we can make plays, and I thought we made some plays there at the end.”

Asplund’s third goal of the playoffs, and second of the game, on a rebound off a John Leonard shot wide that caromed off the boards, was the winner on this night, coming on the Checkers’ third shot of the extra session in a game in which the home team appeared to get stronger as the game progressed.

Asplund’s big night also punctuated a wild week for the winger, who also became a father this week.

“It’s been a crazy week, but a lot of positives and a life-changing moment,” Asplund said. “Two big wins here with the team, so it’s been fun.”

Added Kinnear: “He must be well-rested, right? He’s an elite athlete and looks after himself on and off the ice. You love stories like that where someone has their first baby and then they can come and have a positive impact on the game. It speaks volumes of the leader that he is. I’m not surprised because he just comes to work every single day and goes about his business.”

After an evenly-played opening two periods, the Checkers turned up the pressure in the third, scoring the tying goal early in the frame to force overtime.

Early action, Checkers rally

Determined to not chase the game for a second straight night, Hershey came out hard in the opening period, and started the scoring quickly.

Luke Philp scored his first of the AHL playoffs just 2:33 into the game to put the Bears on top 1-0. Assists on that goal went to Mike Sgarbossa and Chase Priskie.

The teams then traded power-play chances, one each in the first and second periods, but neither special unit converted in either period. Shots were hard to come by for both teams. Hershey keeper Hunter Shepard saw only 13 shots through two periods and stopped them all. Kaapo Kahkonen rebounded after the early score and stopped the rest of the shots he saw for Charlotte.

“If you look at the game as a whole, they were the much better team in the first period,” Charlotte coach Geordie Kinnear said. “I didn’t really love our start, to be honest. Probably halfway through the second period, we started to come a little bit and then I thought the third period we played a good hockey game. For me it was just a back-to-back, playoff-type game that could go either way. We made a play at the end to win a hockey game.”

In the third, the Checkers came alive, outshooting the Bears 13-5. Most importantly, one of those 13 went in the net.

At 4:16 of the third, Asplund got the puck past Shepard with help from Dennis Cesana and Tobias Bjornfot.

This story was originally published May 17, 2025 at 10:13 PM.