The Charlotte Checkers have one goal before the start of every season: To play hockey in June.
June 1st marked Game One of the AHL Calder Cup Finals with the hometown Checkers hosting the Chicago Wolves.
Fans showed up in droves, surrounding Bojangles Coliseum from Independence Boulevard to Monroe Rd.
Unfortunately, Charlotte hit a scoring drought one-third of the way through to fall 4-3 in OT after leading 3-1.
"We’re in the finals. This isn’t the end of the world. We lost one game, and it was in overtime to a very good team," head coach Mike Velucci said.
But once the game started, the Checkers got to work.
Wolves Right Wing Keegan Kolesar was charged with an early hooking penalty just over two minutes into the game.
Charlotte capitalized on the numbers advantage quickly taking a 1-0 lead off a goal from Trevor Carrick.
Martin Necas went on to score Charlotte’s second goal reclaiming the lead at 2-1, but the Checkers and Wolves would find themselves in a dust up before the close of the first period, resulting in two-minute penalties for Andrew Poturlaski and T.J. Tynan.
Two wasn’t enough for Charlotte. Poturlaski scored the team’s third goal to extend the lead to 3-1.
As time expired, the two teams would collide again, and this time the fight went down the ice.
The second period would stay quiet until just under the halfway mark, Chicago’s Zac Leslie put the puck in the back of the net to draw back within one.
The Checkers would lose their one-point advantage heading into the third as Zach Whitecloud scored a game-tying goal for the Wolves with five seconds remaining in the second.
"Going up 3-1 there in the first period, we had all the momentum and we let it slip away," Poturlaski said. "That’s not the way we wanted it to go, but stuff happens in the playoffs."
High emotions carried into the third period, but the chippiness on the ice finally seemed to subside.
With ten minutes to go in regulation, it was clear both sides wanted to break the tie.
As the third period began to wind down, Charlotte was granted another scoring opportunity but stayed knotted at three after failing to convert on the power play.
At the end of regulation, the score remained even at three.
Charlotte was charged with a cross-checking penalty early into overtime, allowing the Wolves to approach power play very aggressively with a finals road win in mind.
The Checkers managed to get through their penalty kill unscathed, but shortly after Matteau scored Chicago’s game-winning goal and his second of the night.
The 4-3 victory for the Wolves secured a 1-0 series advantage in the Calder Cup Finals.
"We’ve rebounded every time. Our goaltender, our D, our forwards – we’ve rebounded when we’ve had a loss," Velucci said. "I don’t expect anything different. Is it going to be easy? No, but I expect us to rebound."