Wolf Pack End Three-Game Skid, Topple Checkers 5-2 in Charlotte

Trey Fix-Wolansky buried two goals, Connor Mackey reached 100 career AHL points, and rookie Brody Lamb scored his first professional point as the Hartford Wolf Pack ended a three-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Charlotte Checkers at Bojangles Coliseum on March 17.

Fix-Wolansky opened the scoring at 12:30 of the first period, ripping a long shot from the top of the offensive zone that deflected off a Charlotte defender and beat goaltender Cooper Black. The goal was his team-leading 24th of the season and carried an added distinction: it snapped a Charlotte home shutout streak of 237:02 dating to Feb. 14. The sequence began when Casey Fitzgerald and Brendan Brisson gained the zone on a rush, with Fitzgerald driving to the net and Brisson sliding the puck back to Fix-Wolansky at the top of the circle.

Hartford extended the lead to 2-0 early in the second period when Aidan Thompson scored his first goal as a member of the Wolf Pack at 4:59. Fix-Wolansky then struck again at 12:48 on a four-on-three power play, the product of a penalty sequence that began at 11:37 when Morrow and Ben Steeves each drew roughing minors, followed roughly a minute later by Jack Studnicka taking a roughing call of his own. Connor Mackey set up Fix-Wolansky at the top of the left-wing circle for a shot Black could not stop, giving Hartford a 3-0 lead. The assist was Mackey's 100th career AHL point. Brisson picked up the secondary helper, his 30th point of the season. Fix-Wolansky's second goal of the night was his 25th of the campaign and his sixth multi-goal game of the season.

Hartford killed a pair of penalties late in the second period and carried the three-goal lead into the intermission.

Studnicka gave Charlotte life in the third, scoring twice to pull the Checkers within one. His second goal came shorthanded at 8:25 from the right-wing side, and for a stretch it appeared the Checkers might make a game of it.

Hartford answered quickly and decisively. Dylan Roobroeck won an offensive-zone faceoff and fed it back to Mackey at the point, where the defenseman displayed patience before firing a shot into traffic that beat Black by the glove at 13:03 to make it 4-2. Just 52 seconds later, at 13:55, Lamb fired a shot from the left-wing wall that Black denied, but the rebound found its way back to Lamb, who potted the backhand to complete the 5-2 final and collect the first professional point of his career.

Dylan Garand earned the win in net for Hartford.

The Wolf Pack's five-game road trip continued the following night with a back-to-back rematch against Charlotte, puck drop at 7:00 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning at 6:45 p.m. on AHLTV on FloHockey and Mixlr. Hartford returns home to the newly renovated PeoplesBank Arena on March 28 when the Checkers come to town, with a 6:00 p.m. puck drop and pregame at 5:45 p.m. on the same platforms.