By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester outshoots the Canadian visitors but are unable to find the back of the net.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The St. John’s IceCaps put a dampener on the end of the Rochester Americans Hall of Fame induction night with a 3-0 victory on Friday before 4,879 fans at the Blue Cross Arena.
The Amerks hit the post behind St. John’s rookie goalie Charlie Lindgren a couple of times in the first period. They also were unable to convert on a 5-on-3 man advantage for 1:20 in the opening stanza as well.
“We had an opportunity on the power play early in the game and didn’t capitalize,” said Amerks coach Dan Lambert. “Taylor Fedun hit the post in the first 10 seconds of the power play. If that goes in it’s probably a different game for us.
“We killed a couple of power plays they had which I thought would certainly give us momentum. It didn’t.”
“I thought we had some chances to score early in the contest,” said defenseman Mat Bodie following his Amerks debut. “I think if we had got on the board, it might have been a different game. I liked our start to the game but I think our penalty kill unit gave us some momentum after we were not able to score on the power-plays early.”
Bodie was acquired on Wednesday by the parent Buffalo Sabres in a trade with the New York Rangers for forward Dan Catenacci. Bodie was playing for the Rangers’ AHL affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack.
“Mat is an offensive defenseman who can move the puck well,” Lambert said.”He has great vision. He is a guy who can bring the puck out of our zone. I think that is certainly something we were lacking. He has the potential to make our power play better as well.”
Later in the contest, Nick Baptiste shot wide of an open net and Cal O’Reilly was unable to gain control of the puck, also starring at an open net. Baptiste had a breakaway in the second period, gaining control of the puck when an IceCap broke his stick on a shot from the Amerks blue line. Lindgren came up with another fine save to thwart that scoring attempt.
Rochester outshot St. John’s, 29-27, for the game as Lindgren posted a shutout with 29 saves.
Once again the second period proved to be the Amerks downfall as the IceCaps fired 11 shots to 9 for Rochester, and scored 2 goals.
“I thought our second period was not very good,” Lambert said. “We turned a lot of pucks over and they established a forecheck on us. We didn’t play a very smart period.”
“We had a lot of chances throughout the game,” added team captain O’Reilly. “I think St. John’s was the better team, especially in the second period when they had a push but we were not able to push back.”
The Amerks return to action on Saturday night at 7:05 pm at the BCA against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
*NOTES – Former Amerks team captain of the last Calder Cup Championship team in 1996, Scott Nichol, and for 31 years the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle Amerks and hockey beat writer, Kevin Oklobizja, were inducted into the Amerks Hall of Fame in pregame ceremonies. The pair are the 60th and 61st inductees in the club’s 61-year history…Second-year pro Nick Baptiste became the first Amerk this season to reach the 20-goal mark on Saturday with his third-period tally in the 4-3 loss in Syracuse…New defenseman Mat Bodie is not unfamiliar with NYS as the East St. Paul, Manitoba native captained the Union College hockey team to a NCAA championship in 2014 and was named to the All-Tournament team. The third-year pro signed with the New York Rangers as an undrafted free agent after leaving the Schenectady college.
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Kevin Oklobizja Hall of Fame – https://youtu.be/N0cEL9ww5QM
Scott Nichol Hall of Fame – https://youtu.be/_SEIE9UgZuk
Justin Vaive shots – https://youtu.be/AFjC-ljH-No
Mat Bodie interview – https://youtu.be/UZAsLFu57T0
Cal O’Reilly interview – https://youtu.be/8Z_aJn37VLs
Dan Lambert interview – https://youtu.be/zx_A3NlXmME