Checkers Even Series on Mike Benning Overtime Winner

For the second consecutive game in the Calder Cup Finals, it took more than 60 minutes to find a winner. But this time it was the Checkers who came out on top thanks to a missile from Mike Benning.

After successfully killing a penalty of their own, the Checkers earned a power play early on in the extra frame. After Justin Sourdif kept an Abbotsford clearing attempt in the zone and swung the puck to Benning on the left point, the blue liner stepped up to the top of the circle and fired a shot that beat Canucks netminder Arturs Silovs, sent a record-breaking Bojangles Coliseum crowd into a frenzy and evened the Finals at one game a piece.

The first period of Game 2 contained all of the goal-scoring action otherwise. The two sides traded blows - John Leonard hammered one home from the doorstep just 3:13 into the contest, then Abbotsford tied things up a minute later, Wilmer Skoog struck on the man advantage later in the frame to push Charlotte ahead again, then Linus Karlsson netted a power-play goal of his own to even the score.

As the physicality ramped up neither side could convert from that point on, until Benning’s clutch moment in overtime.

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NOTES

The crowd of 8,689 fans is the largest to ever see a Checkers game at Bojangles Coliseum, breaking a record set just two days earlier in Game 1 (8,667) … This was the first time since 2015 that the first two games of the Calder Cup Finals went to overtime … It was only the second time the Checkers went to overtime in consecutive playoff games (2019) and the first when both games were in the same series … The Checkers are 2-2 in playoff overtime games this season and 9-6 all time … Skoog’s goal ended a skid of 12 straight Checkers power plays with no goal … The Checkers scored as many power-play goals tonight (two) as they did in their previous 10 playoff games … Checkers scratches included forwards Riley Bezeau, Zac Dalpe, Jack Devine, Riese Gaber, Riley Hughes, Ryan McAllister, Aidan McDonough, Liam McLinskey, Kai Schwindt, C.J. Smith and Nicholas Zabaneh; defensemen Dennis Cesana, Colton Huard, Eamon Powell and Mitch Vande Sompel; and goaltender Cooper Black.