Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Mike Benning had already began time beyond regulation of Recreation 2 of the Calder Cup Finals on Sunday afternoon impressively sufficient.
A tripping penalty on fellow defenseman Matt Kiersted had left Charlotte shorthanded 16 seconds into the additional interval. Already down 1-0 within the collection, and dealing with a potent Abbotsford energy play that had already burned the Checkers 3 times this collection, they wanted their penalty kill to return by means of greater than ever.
With the Canucks urgent and threatening, Benning fished away a unfastened puck contained in the defensive zone and drove it up ice, the place Will Lockwood may take management and burn extra break day the clock. That led to a faceoff contained in the Abbotsford zone, the place a Chase Wouters tripping name put the Checkers on the facility play. Then with the Wouters penalty right down to 10 seconds, Benning took a Justin Sourdif cross-ice feed to the left level, backed off Abbotsford protection, discovered an open lane and sailed a shot previous the glove of goaltender Artūrs Šilovs.
“Everybody needs to attain, be that man” Benning mentioned, “I used to be simply attempting to contribute my half, and my half was placing the puck within the web. So it wasn’t simply me on the market doing the work. We want everybody in there, and we obtained the job carried out.”
Mentioned Checkers head coach Geordie Kinnear mentioned of the game-winner, “An excellent shot. Confidence. He can be a man when the sport’s on the road you need it on his stick within the offensive zone, and he’s carried out all of it 12 months for us. He’s that sort of participant.”
After going into double-overtime in Recreation 1 on Friday, the Checkers ended Recreation 2 early in OT to keep away from one other protracted battle with the cussed Canucks, who obtained one other dominant efficiency from Šilovs. Charlotte outshot the guests, 42-13, and restricted them to simply six pictures within the remaining 44:02 of play. However the Checkers additionally repeatedly had prime probabilities shut down by Šilovs.
Recreation 3 at Abbotsford Centre on Tuesday will arrive shortly, and the Checkers have one other demanding week forward of them with this collection now set to go at the least 5 video games.
Furthermore, Benning, Kiersted and the remainder of the Charlotte protection corps had taken on heavy minutes after Tobias Bjornfot left the sport within the second interval and didn’t return. Marek Alscher had taken Dennis Cesana’s place in Kinnear’s Recreation 2 lineup, so at the least there was one recent physique. Nonetheless, with this collection wanting increasingly prefer it might be a prolonged one between these two evenly matched golf equipment, each little bit of relaxation counts. All the conditioning work that the Checkers have carried out by means of the season and Calder Cup Playoffs can actually repay on a scorching, humid Sunday afternoon within Bojangles Coliseum. The Checkers produced likelihood after likelihood that Šilovs shut down, however lastly broke by means of after the second and third intervals had gone scoreless for each golf equipment.
“I believe Geordie and the employees right here, and even the management group, they held they maintain everybody accountable,” Benning mentioned. “We’ve labored exhausting all through the entire 12 months, and we’re prepared for these items.”
Benning, a 23-year-old taken within the fourth spherical of the 2020 NHL Draft by the Florida Panthers, has put collectively two sturdy AHL seasons with Charlotte after popping out of the NCAA powerhouse that’s the College of Denver. After producing 32 factors (9 targets, 23 assists) in 54 regular-season video games, he has been dominant within the postseason. His 5 playoff targets tie him for the AHL lead amongst defensemen.
Past scoring, although, Kinnear has been in a position to rely closely on Benning on this playoff run, particularly with the crew’s blue line having been banged up at completely different factors. Bjornfot additionally missed time in Recreation 1, and Charlotte additionally needed to get by with out Kiersted for a five-game stretch earlier this postseason.
The Checkers will want extra of that from Benning and the remainder of the roster. Each groups have a battle on their arms as this collection strikes west.
“It’s five-game collection (now),” Benning mentioned. “Excited to recover from there and play some extra hockey.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
