The Charlotte Checkers are cheering for the Texas Stars to beat the Abbotsford Canucks tonight, rest assured of that.

Charlotte has already advanced to the AHL Calder Cup championship series, as the Florida Panthers’ farm team swept the Laval Rocket in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals. That set ended Tuesday.

The Checkers are waiting on the West winner and will be glad to see Abbotsford and Texas tire themselves out coming to that outcome. The Canucks carry a 3-1 lead on the Stars into Game 5 tonight (5 p.m.) in Cedar Park, Texas. Game 6, if necessary, would be Sunday (6 p.m.) at the Abbotsford Centre and the Game 7 would also be there on Monday (7 p.m.) if it’s required.

Abbotsford is coming off a 5-4 overtime victory in Texas on Wednesday. Texas is the farm team of the Dallas Stars. 

The Calder Cup gets going June 13 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Game 2 is there June 15, before the series shifts to either Abbotsford or Texas with Game 3 on June 17.

This is the fourth season that the Vancouver Canucks have had their AHL team in Abbotsford, and this is easily the deepest they’ve gotten into the playoffs in that tenure. A win tonight would mark a fourth series win of these playoffs; they had two series wins in the first three years combined.

This is the best a Canuck farm team has done in the AHL post-season since the Utica Comets made it to the Calder Cup finals in 2015, where they lost in five games to the Manchester Monarchs.

This season, Abbotsford (44-24-2-2) finished second in the Pacific Division in the regular season and fifth overall in the league. Texas (43-26-3-0) was second in Central and 10th overall, while Charlotte (44-22-3-3) was second in the Atlantic and fourth overall, two points ahead of Abbotsford. The Canucks and Checkers did not play this season.

Winger Linus Karlsson leads Abbotsford in scoring through the playoffs, with nine goals and 17 points going into tonight. Wingers Sammy Blais (3-8-11) and Arshdeep Bains (0-11-11) are next best.

Blais and fellow winger Jonathan Lekkerimäki both came out of Abbotsford’s lineup for Wednesday’s game. There was no word from the team whether it was injury related or a healthy scratch. Lekkerimäki has one goal and five points in 12 playoff games. He had 19 goals in 36 regular season games with Abbotsford. 

If you aren’t able to watch the game in person, check back for the play-by-play updates throughout tonight’s game. 

MORE TO COME …