Checkers Complete Weekend Sweep, Domingue Stops 31 in 6-2 Win

Louis Domingue turned in the best goaltending performance of his season, and Charlotte's special teams finally ended a five-week drought on the power play. The result was a 6-2 dismantling of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at Bojangles Coliseum on Sunday that gave the Checkers a weekend sweep and tightened their grip on Atlantic Division positioning.

Domingue's 31 saves were his most in a single game this season, a performance that kept Charlotte comfortable even as the Checkers piled up offense in front of him. The 6-2 margin tells part of the story; the goaltending backdrop tells the rest.

Special teams drove the narrative early. Charlotte converted its first power-play goal since Feb. 16, snapping a stretch of more than five weeks without a man-advantage tally. Mitchell Vande Sompel has been the catalyst on the offensive end lately, having scored three goals in his last four games. The Checkers also continued one of the more quietly impressive trends in the AHL: they now have a shorthanded goal in four of their last five games, a rate that puts Charlotte's penalty-kill unit in elite territory for generating offense.

The scoring depth went well beyond special teams. Pinho recorded his second consecutive two-goal game, a stretch that is hard to overlook regardless of opposition. Gregor has found the net in each of his last three games. Jack Devine extended his point streak to three games. Meanwhile, Steeves has assists in three straight contests, and both Nate Smith and Tobias Bjornfot picked up assists for the second game in a row.

Charlotte dressed a shorthanded roster Sunday, scratching eight players: Liam McLinskey, Eamon Powell, Ludvig Jansson, Jake Livingstone, Gracyn Sawchyn, Wilmer Skoog, Brett Chorske and Kirill Gerasimyuk. That the Checkers produced six goals against the Phantoms with that many bodies out of the lineup underscores how broadly the offensive production has been distributed across this roster.

The sweep adds a layer of urgency to what Charlotte is building. A team that can win back-to-back games, generate shorthanded offense at that clip, and get a season-best goaltending effort on the back end of a road-heavy stretch is sending a clear message about its playoff readiness in the Atlantic Division.