By CRAIG POTTER
Tim Kennedy nets the lone tally as Rochester loses its second straight 1-goal game.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Americans are struggling to score goals as evident a 2-1 loss to the Albany Devils on Friday night before 7,289 fans on First Responders Night at the Blue Cross Arena.
The Amerks will get a chance to avenge the defeat when the two teams play again, this time in Albany on Saturday night.
The Devils opened the scoring 3:46 into the first period on a breakaway, but Tim Kennedy’s forechecking in the Albany zone resulted in a steal as he fired the puck past Devil netminder Mackenzie Blackwood for what proved to be the lone Rochester tally in the contest.
“Albany came out of the gates pretty hot,” said Ullmark. “They fired a lot of shots and that kept us on our toes, but we played better over the second half of the game.”
Albany capitalized on a slashing penalty to Tyson Strachan to score the game-winner on a power play in the second period.
The power-play goal snapped Rochester’s streak of 11 consecutive kills without allowing a tally.
“Albany is in first place in the Division for a reason,” said Kennedy. “They work hard, play with good structure and do not make many mistakes. They shut down the middle of the ice and that is one reason why we struggled getting shots during the first half of the game.”
Rochester goalie Linus Ullmark again was outstanding in net as he recorded 34 saves, many of the spectacular variety, to keep his teammates in the game.
The closest Rochester came to scoring was when Brady Austin rang a shot off the crossbar with 10:30 left in the second stanza.
Forward Justin Bailey paced the Amerks with 5 shots, however it was the third straight game where he failed to earn a point. In the prior 9 games, Bailey earned at least 1 points and he also had a pair of multi-goal games during that stretch.
*NOTES — The Buffalo Sabres assigned defenseman Casey Nelson to the Amerks on Friday…The Amerks then re-assigned defenseman Brycen Martin to the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL…Saturday’s game is the last one before the All-Star break this weekend in Allentown, PA., as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms will be the host. Linus Ullmark and Cole Schneider will represent Rochester as both are making their first AHL All-Star appearance. Schneider leads the Amerks with 38 points (15+23), tied for 5th in the AHL…The Amerks next games are Feb. 3 and 4 in New England against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Hartford Wolf Pack, respectively…The Amerks return to the BCA on Feb. 10, also against Albany.
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Cole Schneider shot power play – https://youtu.be/0Otc9FANHZM
Justin Bailey 2 shots – https://youtu.be/9clIU07zzeQ
Linus Ullmark interview – https://youtu.be/Rcfl9p2egBc
Tim Kennedy interview – https://youtu.be/KacD5fvJP2k
Coach Dan Lambert interview – https://youtu.be/F9fKfC9-PhY