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Checkers Weekly Recap
Charlotte’s red-hot January cooled off a bit this past week, as the Checkers lost its pair of games to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins in former head coach Mike Vellucci’s return to the Queen City.
Charlotte’s slow start in the first game of the week proved to be the nail in the coffin as the Penguins took a 3-0 lead early in the second period. Charlotte rallied in the middle of the second frame with Julien Gauthier, Eetu Luostarinen and Gustav Forsling tying the game up. However, the Penguins took the lead and didn’t relinquish, winning 5-4.
The second game of the week started strong with Gauthier striking just 55 seconds into the game. However, Wilkes-Barre bounced back, scoring a pair of goals to take the lead. Morgan Geekie got on the board with his 13th goal of the season to tie the game. But it wasn’t to be, as Thomas Di Pauli scored a pair of goals to earn the Penguins the 4-2 victory.
Callum Booth, who has served as the third goaltender most of the season and has not seen much playing time, was loaned to the ECHL Atlanta Gladiators. With Jeremy Helvig holding down the starting spot in Greenville, the Hurricanes needed to go out of the organization to find Booth a spot to get some regular playing time.
Meanwhile, the 2020 AHL All Star Classic occurred over the weekend with Jake Bean recording three assists across the four games and Alex Nedeljkovic made a slew of saves over multiple games as the Atlantic Division squad took the round-robin tournament crown. At Sunday’s All-Star Skills competition, Nedeljkovic shared the Top Goaltender Award with Hershey’s Vitek Vanacek, making 14 saves across all events.
Swamp Rabbits Recap
Greenville stayed busy this week, with multiple roster moves. The Swamp Rabbits received Karl El-Mir from the Indy Fuel as part of the future considerations that sent Mathieu Foget to Indy a week ago. Greenville also acquired defenseman Cameron Heath from the Wheeling Nailers in exchange for future considerations to help stabilize their back-end.
Greenville struggled this week, going 1-2 after being shut out twice by the Florida Everblades and Orlando Solar Bears. The Swamp Rabbits topped the Atlanta Gladiators 7-6 in their only win of the week in a back and forth game.
The Swamp Rabbits continue their longest homestand of the season with four games in the next five days, beginning with a Wednesday matchup against first-place South Carolina.