CHARLOTTE — The first Calder Cup Finals game in Charlotte Checkers franchise history certainly did not lack for excitement.
Stefan Matteau scored the game-winning goal 4:30 into overtime, his second of the game, as the Chicago Wolves took a 1-0 lead in the American Hockey League’s championship series over the Charlotte Checkers, a fitting if disappointing end to a back-and-forth game that had a record crowd of 8,465 at Bojangles’ Coliseum - a crowd that included Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon and AHL president Dave Andrews - in equal parts tense and joyous.
The Checkers wasted no time getting things rolling.