Charlotte, N.C. — The American Hockey League has now reached the finals of the 2025 season, as the Charlotte Checkers and Abbotsford Canucks are looking for a Calder Cup. Last night, June 13, the Checkers hosted the Canucks at Bojangles Coliseum with a sold-out crowd of over 8,500 fans. Little did fans know, they would be witnessing almost five hours of playoff hockey for game one.
Between the pipes and in the creases, Kaapo Kähkönen for the Checkers and Artūrs Šilovs for the Canucks would start and be absolutely brilliant. Šilovs made 51 saves for 90 minutes of ice time, while Kähkönen made only 26 saves.
Despite starting the series away from home, the Canucks silenced the road crowd in Charlotte during the first few minutes of the first period. Max Sasson opened the scoring with twelve seconds left on the power play, assisted by Sammy Blais. Minutes later, the Checkers responded, tying the score at one with eight minutes left in the first period, with a beautiful goal by MacKenzie Entwistle.
Despite the tied score, the Checkers wasted no time as the clock wound down to seconds. 0.6 seconds before the buzzer, Oliver Okuliar scored, erupting the crowd at Bojangles Coliseum, as the Checkers took the lead going into the second period.
Seven minutes into the middle frame, Justin Sourdif gave the Checkers a two-goal lead. But seconds after, an aggressive forecheck from the Canucks put Nate Smith on the breakaway where he lit the lamp to decrease the trail by one.
In the third, the Checkers were very much silent, scoring-wise. Even with decent scoring chances in the Canucks end, Silovs made excellent saves in the blue paint. At 8:14, Ty Mueller tied the game at three and sent the clubs into overtime.
In the first overtime, the Checkers received two power play opportunities, but made no use of them. The collective effort of the Canucks’ d-core and Silovs kept the game tied and rolling. But after twenty minutes of “bonus hockey,” the score remained the same, so double-OT was ushered in.
With tired legs on the ice, the energy levels from both teams simply weren’t there during the second overtime. But with less than four minutes into the period, the Checkers thought they had won the game after a faceoff win that deflected into the net. However, a minute after the celebration from the fans and team, the officials waved it off due to Silovs not being ready before the draw.
Ultimately, that would kill the momentum for the home team, as the clock read at almost midnight and the energy levels dropped significantly. Five minutes later, the Canucks took the game on the power play from Danila Klimovich wristing one from the corner.
Honestly, for game one in the Calder Cup Finals, this was far from not being entertaining, even if the game ended at midnight. The Canucks now hold a one-game lead heading into Sunday’s match up in Charlotte, but there’s still plenty of games left to decide a cup winner. Sunday’s game will be on June 15 at 4:00 p.m. EST at Bojangles Coliseum.
Three Stars
- Danila Klimovich (1G)
- Artūrs Šilovs (51 saves)
- Justin Sourdif (1G)
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