The Charlotte Checkers finished the American Hockey League regular season on April 19 with a 4-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at Bojangles Coliseum — a power-play clinic that closed the books on a 44-23-5-0 record, 93 points, and the third seed in the Atlantic Division. Three nights later, they opened the Calder Cup playoffs with an 8-1 win over the Springfield Thunderbirds, also at Bojangles, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three First Round.
One more win on Friday night and Charlotte plays on.
The Finale
Sunday's regular-season closer was, statistically, a power play exhibition. Charlotte went 4-for-8 with the man advantage — the team's best single-game performance of the season — and killed all seven Lehigh Valley power plays it faced.
Martin Vilmanis opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period. Conor Steeves added a power-play goal in the third. Marc Studnicka scored twice in the third period, both on the power play, to finish a four-point weekend. For Lehigh Valley, Carson Berglund scored a breakaway goal in the third period for his first North American professional goal — the lone Phantoms tally of the night.
Goaltender Louis Domingue started and exited with an injury; Konstantin Gerasimyuk finished the game.
Vilmanis's goal was part of a stretch worth noting. He recorded seven points across the final three regular-season games — a run that included his four-goal night against Hershey on April 12, the first four-goal game in Checkers AHL history and the loudest single-player moment of the regular season.
Sunday closed on a power play that had, in head coach Geordie Kinnear's post-game framing, found its accountability.
The Bracket
The playoff seeding set Charlotte as the Atlantic Division's third seed, paired with the sixth-seeded Springfield Thunderbirds in a best-of-three First Round. All three possible games are scheduled for Bojangles Coliseum. There are no Springfield home dates in this series.
Two things worth noting about the matchup. The first is that Charlotte went 6-2-0-0 against Springfield during the regular season — among the more decisive head-to-head ledgers in the Atlantic. The second is the format itself. The AHL First Round is best-of-three. One loss is manageable. Two is the season.
Game 1
The series opened Wednesday night at Bojangles. Charlotte won 8-1.
The scoreline is the story. Eight goals in a First Round opener is the kind of number that either ends a series quickly or produces a response from the team on the wrong end of it in Game 2. Kinnear has been explicit across the regular season's final weeks about not letting a result become a psychological cushion. That was after a shutout loss to Lehigh Valley on April 18 — the game that sat in front of Sunday's finale — and the same logic applies in reverse.
In a best-of-three format, a Game 1 blowout buys exactly one thing: the ability to lose Game 2 and still play Game 3. It does not buy a series.
Charlotte leads 1-0.
What's Next
Game 2 is Friday, April 24, at 7:00 p.m. at Bojangles Coliseum. If Charlotte wins, the series is over and the Checkers advance to the Atlantic Division Semifinals. If Springfield wins, Game 3 is Saturday, April 25, same building, same time.
Sunday closed a regular season in which Charlotte produced its best power-play performance of the year, set a franchise record for goals in a single game by one skater, and finished third in the Atlantic. Wednesday produced an 8-1 series-opening win.
Friday is the one that matters.