Andrew Hammond shuts out the Wolf Pack for the team’s 4th straight win.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With a season-high three-assist outing by defenseman Zach Redmond and a stellar 25 save-effort from goaltender Andrew Hammond, the Rochester Americans (11-3-1-2) blanked the Hartford Wolf Pack (11-3-0-5) by the score of 4-0 Friday night at The Blue Cross Arena. With the win, the Amerks pushed their win streak to four games while also extending their point streak to seven games (6-0-0-1) to start the month of November.
Additionally, Rochester has now earned 25 out of a possible 34 points through its first 17 games of the campaign and has picked up points in 12 of the last 14 contests overall, going 9-2-1-2 over that span.
Along with Redmond’s three-point outing, Scott Wilson added a pair of goals after missing the last two games to give Rochester the two-game sweep over Hartford this season. Tyler Randell and Andrew Oglevie completed the scoring while Hammond improved to 7-1-1 in his 10th appearance in the crease while picking up his second shutout of the month.
Vinni Lettieri, Ryan Dmowski and Darren Raddysh all registered three shots for Hartford, which suffered just its third regulation loss of the season and second straight setback. Making his fourth appearance in the last five games, goaltender Igor Shesterkin (7-2-2) stopped 34 shots but took the loss.
Seconds after the Amerks won the opening face-off, Redmond carried the puck through the neutral zone, and while using a Hartford skater as a screen, the reigning Eddie Shore Award winner and two-time AHL All-Star fired a shot off the blocker of the Wolf Pack goaltender. Continuing into the offense zone, Redmond picked up the rebound, and after circling the net, he handed the puck to Oglevie on the doorstep just 22 seconds into the first period.
With the goal his fifth of the season from Redmond and Brett Murray, Oglevie matched last season’s total in 11 fewer games while Murray earned his fifth assist in his last four outings.
“That’s the way you want to start the game,” Redmond said. “It helps get things moving in the right direction and it was a great job by Oglevie to go to the net like he did.”
“The goal by ‘Ogs’ gave us a boost of confidence,” explained Randell. “It gave us some room to play with but we still stuck to the game plan and it paid off.”
Rochester carried the one-goal lead into the intermission as well as a 15-9 shot-advantage until Randell gave Rochester a 2-0 cushion at the 8:47 mark.
As Dalton Smith, who was skating in his 100th game as an Amerk, was crashing towards the net, Kevin Porter dumped the puck into the near corner before Randell corralled it off boards and picked the upper corner of Shesterkin’s net.
“It was a heck of a shot by Randell,” admitted Redmond. “He had a really strong game and we all are super happy for him because he has not played as much as he sometimes deserves, but he made a case for himself.”
“We challenged the guys to get off to a good start,” said interim head coach Gord Dineen. “Our group came out really strong and continued to do that as the game went on. We wanted to play a full 60-minute game and I thought tonight was one of our better games collectively.”
The game remained a two-goal advantage for Rochester before Wilson scored twice in a span of 5:30 to up the lead to a 4-0 nine minutes into the final frame.
On Wilson’s first tally of the night, Lawrence Pilut fired the puck atop the point while on the power-play before Eric Cornel and Jacob Bryson teamed up with the forward as he was in-between the Hartford face-off dots.
“Coming back into the lineup against one of the top teams in the Conference and scoring a few goals, it always makes it fun,” Wilson said. “There were a couple nice bounces that went my way tonight and obviously I’ll take them.”
Despite taking a penalty in the final 1:59 of regulation, the Amerks and Hammond sent the visitors home empty-handed with a 4-0 win.
“I think we played a great game overall,” Hammond said after his second shutout of the campaign. “We played really simple, and despite losing bodies (due to injuries), guys keep stepping up. Sometimes when that happens, our game just keeps getting simpler and I think tonight our execution was the best it’s been all year.”
The Amerks make their way to the southern tier on Saturday, Nov. 23 for a North Division showdown with the Binghamton Devils at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena.
*NOTES — The Amerks make their way to the southern tier on Saturday, Nov. 23 for a North Division showdown with the Binghamton Devils at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena. The matchup will be the third of the month after splitting the first two games of the 10-game season series…One of the biggest factors attributed to Rochester’s early season success is the fact that the Amerks have outshot their opponents in all but two games so far this season, including a season-high 50 shots in Springfield back on Oct. 27. The Amerks come into the weekend ranked sixth in the AHL in total shots (534) and are averaging 33.38 shots per game, the most in the Eastern Conference…Coming off his second multi-point effort in three games, first-year forward Brett Murray is tied for 13th in scoring among all AHL rookies with nine points (2+7) in 11 games…Andrew Hammond is tied for 10th among netminders in wins (6)…The Amerks come into the weekend owning three of the AHL’s top point-producing defensemen in Zach Redmond, Casey Nelson, and Lawrence Pilut, all of whom have nine points from the blueline.