Eric Cornel nets the game-winner in Rochester’s 4-2 victory.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — With three unanswered goals in the final 40 minutes of regulation, the Rochester Americans (12-3-1-2) doubled up the Binghamton Devils (7-10-3-0) Saturday night at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena by a 4-2 score. With the win, the Amerks extended their win streak to five games while also pushing their point streak to eight straight games (7-0-0-1) to begin the month of November.
Additionally, Rochester has now earned 27 out of a possible 36 points through its first 18 games of the campaign and has picked up points in 13 of the last 15 contests overall, going 10-2-1-2 over that span.
Forward Kevin Porter opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season and 400th professional point while Tyler Randell, Eric Cornel and Andrew Oglevie also found the back of the net for Rochester. Goaltender Jonas Johansson (5-2-2) made 34 saves, which included 19 in the final 20 minutes of play, to earn his third straight win and fifth overall.
Brandon Baddock and Joey Anderson netted their third and fourth goals of the campaign, respectively, for Binghamton. In his AHL season debut, netminder Cory Schneider stopped 29 of 32 but suffered the loss. In 14 career starts against Rochester dating back to the 2007-08 season, Schneider shows a record of 9-4-1 but an 0-3-0 mark with Binghamton.
Despite trailing 2-1 after the opening period, Rochester evened the game at two goals apiece 3:35 into the second as Sean Malone stripped a Binghamton skater of the puck inside the Devils blueline. Shortly after scooping up the puck atop the right circle, Randell wired a shot over the top of Schneider’s glove for his second in goal consecutive games and third of the campaign.
The Amerks then used the momentum of Randell’s tally and a timely breakaway save by Johansson to gather a one-goal lead at the 11:34 mark with a perfectly executed tic-tac-toe passing play in the offensive zone.
With the puck inside the Devils zone, defenseman Casey Nelson avoided a Binghamton skater who lost his stick and slid the puck to John Gilmour, who joined the Amerks earlier in the day after being reassigned by the Buffalo Sabres. Gilmour dished a cross-ice feed to Scott Wilson and Wilson steered the puck to Cornel to the right of the goal-mouth for go-ahead marker.
Rochester carried the 3-2 lead into the final period of regulation and withstood the onslaught from Binghamton as they registered 19 shots in the frame. During their final attempt to force overtime, the Devils pulled Schneider, but Oglevie seal the two-goal victory as he tapped in an empty-netter from Brett Murray and Jean-Sebastian Dea in the dying seconds of the contest.
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, the Amerks return to home ice for their final game of the month on Friday, Nov. 29 as they play host to the Toronto Marlies at the Blue Cross Arena for a North Division showdown.
*NOTES — The Amerks enter the matchup with points in 18 of the last 22 games against the Devils dating back to the start of the 2017-18 season. Rochester holds a 13-4-3-2 record during that span, which included a 6-game win streak…Amerks rookie defensemen Casey Fitzgerald is the son of Binghamton’s general manager Tom Fitzgerald…Rochester came into tonight’s contest with 5 power-play goals in the last 6 games, going 5-for-26 (19.2%) during that span.