The defending North Division champion Crunch post a 4-1 win over Rochester.
By CRAIG POTTER / C&C Worldwide Sports Director
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Americans opened the 2019 preseason with a 4-1 loss against the defending North Division champion Syracuse Crunch Thursday night at the Gene Polisseni Center on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
Rochester grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by defenseman Justin Baudry, 22, who played part of last season with Ontario (AHL).
John Wiitala, a rookie out of Ohio State, assisted on the play.
“It was a nice play by John,” Baudry said of his goal. “He laid a perfect pass in the slot and I took the puck from east to west and shot it in. It was a good feeling and nice to get the first one out of the way.”
The Crunch, however, tied the game late in the first period with a power play tally.
“We had a good start like we had wanted,” said Amerks head coach Chris Taylor. “We then ran into some penalty trouble and did not get the kills and it came back to hurt us. Overall, I thought our compete was really good and we made a lot of good things happen.”
Taylor played a lot of young players, who are trying to make the roster.
Syracuse played a more veteran lineup and chased starting Amerks goalie Jonas Johansson with 2 goals in the second stanza. Michael Houser came in to replace him with 6:55 left in the period and the team trailing 3-1.
“I thought our compete was really good, I thought we hit pretty well,” Taylor said. “They had a pretty good lineup and we had a lot of young guys. They dressed a lot of veterans.”
Syracuse tacked on another power play marker in the third period to complete the scoring.
“They have a lot of talent and we have to do a better job staying out of the penalty box,” said veteran defenseman Nathan Paetsch.
Rochester’s goalie from last season, Scott Wedgewood, is one of four netminders trying to earn a job with the Crunch. He made several key saves to thwart the Amerks as Wedgewood finished with 21 saves.
“I thought Wedgewood played great,” Paetsch said of his former teammate from last season. “We had a lot of good looks, but he made the saves.”
*NOTES — The Amerks continue their 2019 preseason schedule in the front-end of a home-and-home series against the Toronto Marlies at LECOM Harborcenter in downtown Buffalo on Friday at 7 pm. The matchup will mark the first meeting between the two teams since Game 3 of the North Division Semifinals in April when Toronto earned a 3-1 win over the Amerks to complete the first-round sweep. Rochester will conclude its preseason slate on Sunday evening at Ray Twinney Complex as the series with the Marlies shifts north of the boarder at 4 pm…Rochester begins its 64th American Hockey League season at home on Friday, Oct. 4 against the Syracuse Crunch at the Blue Cross Arena.