Brickley’s ot marker gives Checkers control of AHL series

By Jim den Hollander

Editor

Midwesthockey.info

The Charlotte Checkers grabbed control while the Grand Rapids Griffins strengthened its grip on their respective American Hockey League Central Division Best-of-Five Semi Final matches on Sunday (April 23).

The Checkers used an overtime goal from Connor Brickley to open a 2-1 series lead at the AllState Arena near Chicago while the Griffs opened up a 2-0 series lead with its 5-2 win against the Milwaukee Admirals at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids.

Checkers 4 at Wolves 3 (ot)

After a split in North Carolina, the Wolves are set to host two or three games on home ice, but lost its shot at grabbing momentum with this overtime loss. As a result, the top seeded Wolves are in win-or-go-golfing mode for the remainder of the series.

The Checkers built a 2-0 lead with first period goals by Philip Samuelsson and Andrew Miller.  The goals both came in the final five minutes of the period, Miller’s just 46 seconds from the period buzzer.

Kenny Agostino got the Wolves on the board in the opening minute of the second period and Adam Musil tied it up before the three-minute mark of the frame. Teams remained even at 2-2 entering the third.

Patrick Brown notched his first of the post season to get put the Checkers in front again 2:03 into the final period but the lead lasted just over a minute before Ty Loney pulled the Wolves even again, setting the stage for Brickley’s overtime winner.

Tom McCollum stopped 38 of 41 shots in goal for the Checkers while Ville Husso turned aside 30 shots in goal for the Wolves.

The host Wolves will be facing elimination when teams meet again on Tuesday and if need, a fifth and final game will be played the following night.

Admirals 2 at Griffins 5

Two goals by Tyler Bertuzzi helped the host Griffins open a 2-0 series lead on the Admirals in a game the home team never trailed.

Eric Tangradi started up the offense just 25 seconds into the game but Vladislav Kamenev pulled it back, tying the game at 1-1 just 2:12 in.

Axel Holmstrom put the Griffins in front to stay again in the ninth minute of the period and the Griffs carried the 2-1 cushion into the middle period.

Bertuzzi scored the lone second period tally 6:23 into the frame.

Frederick Gaudreau scored his third of the series with 7:25 to play in the final period, getting the Admirals to within a goal but Bertuzzi scored his second of the night into an empty net with 53 seconds to play and Matthew Ford added insurance with another empty netter 16 seconds from the final buzzer.

Jared Coreau made 21 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Griffs and Marek Mazanek stopped 23 before dashing to the bench late in the contest.

The series will shift to Milwaukee’s UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Wednesday as the Griffins look to close it out in three straight.