CHARLOTTE, NC– For the second consecutive game in the Calder Cup Finals, it took more than 60 minutes to find a winner. But this time it was the Checkers who came out on top thanks to a missile from Mike Benning.
After successfully killing a penalty of their own, the Checkers earned a power play early on in the extra frame. After Justin Sourdif kept an Abbotsford clearing attempt in the zone and swung the puck to Benning on the left point, the blue liner stepped up to the top of the circle and fired a shot that beat Canucks netminder Arturs Silovs, sent a record-breaking Bojangles Coliseum crowd into a frenzy and evened the Finals at one game a piece.
The first period of Game 2 contained all of the goal-scoring action otherwise. The two sides traded blows – John Leonard hammered one home from the doorstep just 3:13 into the contest, then Abbotsford tied things up a minute later, Wilmer Skoog struck on the man advantage later in the frame to push Charlotte ahead again, then Linus Karlsson netted a power-play goal of his own to even the score.
As the physicality ramped up neither side could convert from that point on, until Benning’s clutch moment in overtime.
