The Florida Panthers take part in a full team skate at Amerant Bank Arena on Jan. 17 It’s been quite a week for the American Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers. The AHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers are enjoying a nice little stretch of home games, one that included one of the league’s marquee events of the season. Saturday night in Charlotte, the Checkers hosted the Rochester Americans for the Queen City Outdoor Classic. Played at Truist Field, home of the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, a sellout crowd of 11,031 saw the Checkers take down Rochester 5-2. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAwNjE3OTM2NjIzMjQ4NDky/img_6014.jpg] Mackie Samoskevich scored the game-winning goal and Lucas Carlsson added a goal and an assist in the win while Spencer Knight turned aside 25 shots. “It was a special feeling for sure,” Samoskevich told the local Charlotte media afterwards. “The whole day has been cool. I’ve got family here too, so it was nice to do that in front of them.” The rookie has 2 goals and 4 points in his last three games and is up to 26 points in 31 AHL games this season. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0COrFduNSc[/embed] The Checkers followed up the win over Rochester with back-to-back victories over the San Jose Barracuda on Tuesday and Wednesday. Justin Sourdif has played as big a part in Charlotte’s three game winning streak as anyone, logging two goals and eight points during the three outings. That includes his first professional overtime winner, which came during Tuesday’s 5-4 triumph over San Jose. “I’ve seen Sourdie (Sourdif) have a lot of chances playing the right way,” Checkers Head Coach Geordie Kinnear said after the win. “You know the goals are going to go in at some point. It’s a point of emphasis that he wanted to work on his shot, and he got rewarded for it tonight. It’s like we always talk about. If a kid loves the game and is passionate about the game and has fun playing the game and gets rewarded because he’s working hard, the rest will take care of itself. I’m happy for him. In the last two games the puck has gone a little bit more for him.” Through 28 games, Sourdif has racked up 8 goals and 22 points. Picking up the win between the pipes in all three games for Charlotte was Knight. Though he only started two of the three games – he came in relief of Ludovic Waeber on Tuesday – Knight stopped 65 of the 68 shots he faced. The 22-year-old has a 13-7-4 record with Charlotte to go with a 2.48 goals against average, .906 save percentage and a pair of shutouts. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPo9-SDJ98Q[/embed] Overall, the Checkers have climbed into fourth place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division, one point back of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and four back of Providence, thanks to a solid 9-3-4 stretch over the past several weeks. It won’t be easy for Charlotte to keep the good times rolling though, with a very challenging road trip coming starting this weekend. They’ll play four games in six days, starting with Friday and Saturday in Springfield following by Sunday in Providence. They’ll circle back to Hartford and face the Wolfpack on Wednesday before heading back home for a back-to-back against Providence. LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS - FLORIDA Three takeaways: Finding positives in another frustrating loss [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/features/three-takeaways-finding-positives-in-another-frustrating-loss] Panthers drop third straight, unable to hold leads against gritty Red Wings [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/latest-news/panthers-drop-third-straight-unable-to-hold-leads-against-gritty-red-wings] Sasha Barkov out against Detroit with lower-body injury believed to be 'short term' [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/latest-news/sasha-barkov-out-against-detroit-with-lower-body-injury-believed-to-be-short-term] Aiming to get back on track, Panthers host division rival Red Wings [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/latest-news/aiming-to-get-back-on-track-panthers-host-division-rival-red-wings] Panthers should understand challenge of facing hungry teams during season's second half [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/features/panthers-should-understand-challenge-of-facing-hungry-teams-during-seasons-second-half] Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAxNjQxMjA5NjI4NzMxMDIz/unnamed.jpg]
