Goaaaalll! Oh wait ... Charlotte Checkers lose Game 1 on a controversial call
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Officials disallowed Charlotte's OT goal, citing goalie was not ready to play.
- Charlotte outshot Abbotsford 54-30 but went 0-for-5 on power-play chances.
- Largest-ever Checkers crowd packed Bojangles Coliseum for Game 1 showdown.
What does it feel like to win a game in double overtime, only to have it overturned by an officiating call, and then to lose that very same game?
The Charlotte Checkers found that out Friday night, falling 4-3 to the Abbotsford Canucks in Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals. It was the third-longest game the Checkers have ever played.
In a bizarre stretch that left longtime hockey observers shaking their heads because of its rarity, a goal by the Checkers was disallowed because the Abbotsford goaltender was deemed to be not ready for play on a defensive faceoff. However, a player from each team had faced off, the linesman dropped the puck, it then got deflected by Abbotsford and skittered back into the goal. The largest crowd the Checkers had ever drawn to Bojangles Coliseum (8,667) had begun its celebration in earnest. So had the Checkers players on the ice, who thought they had won their ninth straight game in these playoffs.
But the scoreboard never changed. Upon further review, the officials huddled and decided not to count the goal.
“I thought it was a goal,” Charlotte Checkers coach Geordie Kinnear said afterward. “And then all of a sudden, there was hesitation from the refs.”
The fans at Bojangles, as you might imagine, were incensed. They had ridden an emotional rollercoaster for 3-plus hours at that point, and the Checkers had mostly looked like the better team. They outshot Abbotsford, 54-30, and had led 3-1 in the second period.
But the Canucks clawed back and went 2-for-7 on power-play opportunities. Charlotte went 0-for-5, missing out on a number of chances.
“Long series,” Kinnear said. “Can’t get too high or too low.”
And that’s true. Literally, it’s going to be a long series, and a long way in between games. Charlotte can even the series Sunday afternoon in Game 2, and then win or lose will have to travel about 3,000 miles to Abbotsford (just imagine going to Seattle and heading north).
Despite the loss, Friday night was a lot of fun inside the coliseum. And it was hot, too!
Normally when you go into a Checkers game, it feels at least like walking into an air-conditioned movie theater in the summer and at most like you should have brought a coat. This time it was almost steamy, in large part because of that sellout crowd that worked itself into a cowbell-ringing frenzy. It also had something to do with the venue, as those 8,667 fans were packing a 70-year-old multi-purpose coliseum that once hosted the likes of the Carolina Cougars, Pete Maravich, Elvis Presley, Prince, The Monkees and Jimi Hendrix (those last two, amazingly, played on a double bill together in 1967).
Partly because of its enthusiasm and partly because the Checkers skate around in an arena that was designed in the Eisenhower era, it felt like every one of those 8,667 fans (the NFL’s Luke Kuechly and NASCAR’s Kevin Harvick were among them) were in the concourse at the same time between periods. The concession stands reminded me of the lines to get merchandise at the Savannah Bananas game a week ago.
All those fans showing up for hockey in June in Charlotte know what J.J. Jansen, the longtime Carolina Panthers long snapper who is also a minority owner of the Checkers, also knows.
“I don’t know that there is a better in-person sporting event than hockey games,” Jansen told me Friday before the game began, adding he owns “exactly 1%” of the team. “The speed, the environment, the energy. Not only on the ice, but in the arena, I think it’s unmatched. And one of the cool parts about Bojangles is it’s a smaller, quainter environment. Very historical… And when you walk in there, you feel the energy.”
All of that was true Friday night.
And by the end, you also felt the controversy. There were so many boos that they’ll probably still be echoing around this old coliseum Sunday afternoon, when the Checkers try to even up this championship final and take a little of the sting out of the goal that wasn’t.
This story was originally published June 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Goaaaalll! Oh wait ... Charlotte Checkers lose Game 1 on a controversial call."
