Photo: Jacob Kupferman
Charlotte continued to flex its defensive muscle on Friday night, opening the Atlantic Division Finals with a 3-2 win over Hershey at Bojangles Coliseum.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Saturday night.
The Checkers allowed only 19 shots on goal by the Bears’ dangerous offense, and John Leonard scored Charlotte’s third shorthanded goal of the postseason to break a 2-2 tie with 8:02 left in regulation.
Sandis Vilmanis and Michael Benning also scored for the Checkers and Kaapo Kähkönen (4-2) made 17 saves.
Bogdan Trineyev and Mike Vecchione scored in the second period to give the Bears a short-lived 2-1 lead. Hunter Shepard (2-3) stopped 21 shots in net for Hershey.
(Charlotte leads series, 1-0)
Game 1 – Fri., May 16 – CHARLOTTE 3, Hershey 2
Game 2 – Sat., May 17 – Hershey at Charlotte, 7:00
Game 3 – Wed., May 21 – Charlotte at Hershey, 7:00
*Game 4 – Thu., May 22 – Charlotte at Hershey, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sat., May 24 – Charlotte at Hershey, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
