Checkers Win 6-2 to Pick up Weekend Sweep of Phantoms

The Checkers capped off their home stand with an exclamation point Sunday afternoon, rolling over Lehigh Valley 6-2.

Special teams set the tone for Charlotte, as Mitch Vande Sompel threaded a shot through on a late power play in the first and Brian Pinho cashed in shorthanded less than two minutes later.

Things tightened up from there, but Pinho broke through again late in the second to push the home team’s advantage even further.

The special teams tide turned in Lehigh Valley’s favor in the back half of the third, as the Phantoms tallied a power-play and shorthanded strike of their own - with a Tobias Bjornfot goal sandwiched between - to narrow their deficit to two with less than three minutes to play.

The Checkers wouldn’t budge from there, though. Louis Domingue turned in a 31-save performance between the pipes, and a couple more strikes in the waning moments from Riese Gaber and Noah Gregor sealed the deal for Charlotte at 6-2.

QUOTES

Coach Geordie Kinnear on the game
The start was probably what you were going to expect from them. I think if you look at the last two games against them, we had a really good start and they probably didn’t like their starts. We got what we expected, and sometimes you’ve got to buckle down and get good goaltending, which we did, and then we kind of settled into it. A lot of ups and downs to the game to be honest with all the penalties and power plays, and I thought we were fairly steady there. I thought we took a little step on the power play where we scored a big goal, and even though we gave up a shorty near the end there, we have to small little successes on it. A small success tonight and we’ll move forward from there.

Kinnear on getting the power play goal
It's not relief, it’s a small success. We have to have a real mindset of continuing to get better without getting frustrated with it. It was a big goal, to be honest. It got us momentum and got us dialed into it a little bit. Build off of that, and we want to make sure we clean up the one in the third, but a small success and now we’ve got to continue to work hard to build that confidence on both units.

Kinnear on the physicality of the game
It's the way it’s going to be. If you look at (Vilmanis) in particular and what he went through last year in the playoffs and going up to the NHL, he’s learned that physicality and that’s important because that’s the way it’s going to be moving forward. I thought Huard came in with some big hits, (Entwistle) who was a part of it last year came in, so that’s going to have to be an important point moving forward. You need skin in the game and you need to be able to make plays in those circumstances and be comfortable in that type of game.

Sandis Vilmanis on the physicality of the game
It’s just preparing for that playoff run and playoff games. It starts to get more physical and everyone wants to get points and get a playoff spot and that playoff hockey which is structured and more physical.

Vilmanis on his experience playing in the NHL this season
It's just awesome. I had an amazing group of guys there and superstars that I can learn from every day and just try to be as pro as they are. That confidence that they gave me and the boost of the learning process that I got is just unbelievable. I’m just trying to get that here and play my best game as well.

Vilmanis on the penalty kill
Our coaches are really dialed in on the PK and every day we have a really good video about the other team and we know what they’re doing. We just have to play the coaches’ plan and we’re trying to do that every game. It works out most of the time, so it’s been really good from the guys and the coaches as well.

Vilmanis on learning from last year’s playoff run
We had a really experienced group last year and another really good group I could learn from, especially with playoff hockey and how they prepared themselves for the game and how they’re playing with all the physicality they bring. All the help from the experienced players that they are bringing to the younger players was just amazing. I’m just going to try to get that experience from last year and try to put my best hockey out there. Physicality is one of those, and in the playoffs I think we’ll be a really good team.

NOTES

The Checkers are 6-0-0-0 against the Phantoms this season … Charlotte’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot is now 2 … Mitch Vande Sompel’s goal snapped a streak of 38 straight power plays for Charlotte without a goal. It was Charlotte’s first power-play goal since Feb. 16 … Vande Sompel has three goals in his last four games … Steeves has assists in three straight games … This was Pinho’s second consecutive game with two goals … Domingue’s 31 saves were his most in a game this season … The Checkers have a shorthanded goal in four of their last five games … Jack Devine extended his point streak to three games … Nate Smith and Tobias Bjornfot have assists in back-to-back games … Gregor has goals in each of his last three games … Liam McLinskey, Eamon Powell, Ludvig Jansson, Jake Livingstone, Gracyn Sawchyn, Wilmer Skoog, Brett Chorske and Kirill Gerasimyuk were the scratches for Charlotte.