Sandis Vilmanis did something no Charlotte Checkers player has done in franchise history: he scored four goals in a single game.

The Checkers beat Hershey 6-1 on Sunday afternoon at Bojangles Coliseum, evening the weekend series at one apiece after Friday's 2-1 loss ended a five-game winning streak. Vilmanis, a 23-year-old Latvian winger, put the franchise record book in his pocket with goals across all three periods — once to open the second, once to close it, and twice in a two-minute span in the third.

Jack Studnicka set the tone 28 seconds into the first period. Hershey answered with a goal midway through the second to make it 2-1, but Vilmanis had bookended that Bears tally with his first and second goals, restoring a two-goal cushion before the final frame. In the third, he struck twice in rapid succession and the game was over.

Louis Domingue stopped 20 of 21 shots, including 12 in a busy third period when Hershey pushed for a response that never materialized.

The weekend split — a deflating one-goal loss followed by a dominant five-goal response — is the kind of variance that defines hockey in April. What matters more is the trajectory. Charlotte has gone 12-3-1 since the start of March, the best record in the Eastern Conference over that span and the third-best mark in the AHL.

The Checkers sit at 43-22-5 with 91 points, third in the Atlantic Division and locked into the Calder Cup Playoffs for the eighth consecutive season. Coach Geordie Kinnear has spent the final stretch of the regular season emphasizing what he calls "moving the needle" — incremental improvements in structure and detail that separate a playoff contender from an early exit.

Vilmanis' four-goal afternoon suggested Charlotte understood the assignment. The Checkers have been the best team in the Eastern Conference for six weeks. On Sunday, they played like it.