Checked in Charlotte

Slow Start Hinders Phantoms

March 21, 2026

Charlotte, NC – The Charlotte Checkers came ready to play and pounced on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms who were still feeling their way into the game. A 3-0 lead in the opening minutes was more than enough for the decision as Charlotte eventually prevailed in a 5-1 decision on Saturday afternoon.

Brian Pinho (9th, 10th) capped the day with a pair of goals in the third period after providing a helper in the first to pace the Checkers’ attack with a three-point performance. Big Cooper Black (23/24) picked up his 21st win of the season.

Lehigh Valley (27-28-6) received a goal from Oscar Eklind (8th) to break Black’s shutout bid in the third period but that was all for the Orange and Black against Charlotte’s stingy defending.

Charlotte (36-20-5) has had several strong starts against the Phantoms this season and the trend continued with back-to-back goals in the first 125 seconds of the contest. Nate Smith popped the puck free on the forecheck and connected with onrushing defender Mitch Vande Sompel (3rd) who buried it from the right dot at 52 seconds for the initial strike. And Noah Gregor took a pass from Pinho and curled right around Aleksei Kolosov’s poke-check attempt to stuff it in and suddenly it was 2-0 at just 2:05 into the game.

Rookie Jack Devine (16th) sliced through a pair of defenders and found the handle on a hopping puck to the net-front to rifle one through Kolosov close range at 8:15 to boost the lead to 3-0 in the opening frame. Charlotte outshot the Phantoms 10-3 in the first period.

The Phantoms were far stronger in the second period and had several strong chances at Black who made 11 straight saves to preserve the 3-0 margin. Anthony Richard was robbed right in front after Jacob Gaucher forced a turnover from the Checkers’ goaltender. Phil Tomasino had a strong drive from the dot that went off the shoulder of Black.

Adam Ginning helped force a turnover and Phil Tomasino found Eklind in the left dot who rifled it to the upper-right corner, past the glove of Black, to make it 3-1 at 7:48 into the third. Eklind has a two-game goal streak.

David Jiricek carried it in deep looking for a wraparound during increased efforts to close the gap further but his drop sailed through and created an odd-man rush the other way which Brian Pinho buried at 10:50 to put the Checkers back up by three again at 4-1. Pinho’s backhander from the neutral zone found the empty net to complete the scoring.

Charlotte improved to 5-0-0 against the Phantoms who are 0-3-2 against Charlotte.

Adam Ginning played in his 233rd game to break the all-time record for most games by a defenseman in Lehigh Valley history previously held by Reece Willcox at 232.

The Phantoms and Checkers will rematch on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. to conclude the weekend series.

The Phantoms have home games left in the regular season including two next weekend beginning with Hockey is for Everyone Night on Friday, March 27 against the Springfield Thunderbirds and Saturday Night Hockey Live against the Hershey Bears on March 28.

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