Charlotte Checkers take Game 1 to wire in series opener at Lehigh Valley

All good things must come to an end, the old saying goes.

And thus it was with the Charlotte Checkers’ win streak, which reached 10 games before Friday night’s 2-1 loss to the host Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the first game of a seven-game second-round American Hockey League playoffs series.

A late power-play goal, set up by a Valentin Zykov tripping penalty, made the difference for the Phantoms.

With 1:43 remaining in the third period, Corban Knight fed the puck to Greg Carey, who found the net for the winning goal. Chris Conner also earned an assist on the score.

Alex Krushelnyski scored Lehigh Valley’s earlier goal with 13:43 left in the second period. Colin McDonald and Cole Bardreau were credited with assists on Krushelnyski's first goal of the playoffs.

Zykov scored Charlotte’s only goal with 4:34 left in the first period with assists from Lucas Wallmark and Andrew Miller.

Checkers goalie Alex Nedeljkovic came away with 30 saves on the night, while his Phantoms counterpart Alex Lyon stopped 29 of 30 shots.

“I guess I felt like I was put in some pretty pressure situations ... with the Flyers this year and so I’ve been drawing a lot on that,” Lyon said, according to the Phantoms’ Twitter feed.

The Checkers’ 13-game point streak (12-0-1) also came to an end Friday night. The loss is Charlotte’s first in regulation since March 18 against Binghamton, which was also the last time they scored fewer than two goals.

Charlotte fell to 1-4-0 at Lehigh Valley this season. The Checkers and Phantoms met eight times in the regular season and split the games, each winning three at home.

Lehigh Valley, which finished first in the AHL Atlantic Division, led the league in scoring this season. The Checkers, who finished third in the Atlantic, were second in scoring.

The Checkers are the Carolina Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate while the Phantoms are the Philadelphia Flyers’ top minor-league club.

▪ Next game: The series continues Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa. The teams meet in Charlotte for up to three games beginning Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Bojangles’ Coliseum.

This story was originally published May 4, 2018 at 11:40 PM with the headline "Charlotte Checkers take Game 1 to wire in series opener at Lehigh Valley."