Morgan Geekie's Goals Lead Checkers to First Home Victory

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After a tough loss in their opener, the Checkers bounced back nicely in front of their home crowd with a convincing 4-1 victory over Bridgeport.Morgan Geekie drove the offense through the first 40 minutes of play, ripping a slap shot past Jared Coreau late in the first then knifing a wrister into the top corner in the middle frame to snag a lead for the home side.New faces took over in the third as Brian Gibbons redirected a point shot on the power play to extend Charlotte’s lead and Fredrik Claesson chipped in his second assist of the night on Eetu Luostarinen’s game-sealing empty net tally.In his first home start of the season Anton Forsberg turned in a strong performance between the pipes, denying 28 of Bridgeport’s 29 shots and helping the Checkers to another perfect game on the penalty kill.Good response to a tough loss. To bounce back showed some character in the dressing room there. There are some things to clean up on, but it’s good to get a win.He’s taking control of games, really. He’s driving our offense for the most part in all four games. He scores, he’s got a great shot and he can make things happen in tight. A really good game by him tonight.He’s a rock back there. You can tell. He’s a pro, he’s confident and he’s seeing the puck at a really high level right now. He made Grade A saves when we really needed them and that’s important.We came in as a new day today. I thought we played well last night and the bounces kind of didn’t go our way. We had to clean some things up and tonight I thought we did thatI had a little bit of success last year and I’m just trying to do the same things I did last time. I’m trying to earn some more trust and responsibility out there so I’ve just got to play the same game I did last year.It takes a couple of games to get going and I think it’s kind of a feeling out process but I like what we’ve got here. I like our team and I like our line a lot. We’re just going to go out and play our game and see what we can do.First of all we’ve got to play a team game and I thought we did except for the last five minutes there where we kind of broke down a bit. At the end I thought we fought hard and we kept them on the outside most of the game, which made it a lot easier for me.Geekie extended his point streak to four games (3g, 2a), making him the only Checker to record at least one point in each game. He finished the game as part of a seven-way tie for second in league scoring … Gibbons (1g, 3a) and Roland McKeown (4a) are also on a point-per-game pace to start the season … Luostarinen has goals in back-to-back games … Forsberg is 2-0-0 with a 1.50 goals-against average and .953 save percentage … The Checkers were a perfect 10-for-10 on the penalty kill in the two-game set against Bridgeport, including a 6-for-6 performance tonight … Forwards Max McCormick and Spencer Smallman missed the game due to injury … Forward Stelio Mattheos and defensemen Cavan Fitzgerald, Alex Lintuniemi and Kyle Wood were the other scratches.