Cole Schneider nets 4 points in leading Rochester to a 5-4 victory over the Bears.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Americans opened their 61st American Hockey League season with a 5-4 victory over the Hershey Bears on Friday night before 6,412 fans at the Blue Cross Arena.
“It feels great to get the first (win) out of the way,” said first-year Amerks coach Dan Lambert. “We didn’t have to wait a week or two to get it.
“I thought the guys played hard and competed. It was a good battle.”
Cole Schneider scored 2 goals and added 2 assists as the Amerks scored 5 goals on just 12 shots. He gave the Amerks a 1-0 lead just 45 seconds into the contest, and made it 2-0 at the 4:05 mark.
“My first couple of years I don’t think I had a point in the opening game,” Schneider said with a smile.”
Rochester goalie Linus Ullmark faced 29 shots and made 25 saves, including a couple spectacular ones, in earning the victory.
“They’re an older team and made the (Calder Cup) finals last year,” Lambert said of the 29-12 shot differential. “They’re a good hockey team but in saying that, they were pressing hard and…have the ability to go into the offensive zone…For the most part shots aren’t always telling. We did spend a lot of time in the ‘D’ zone, but a lot of shots were from the outside.”
The Amerks also faced a man disadvantage for 5 minutes on a Justin Bailey boarding penalty. The Bears scored one goal with the man-advantage to tie the game 3-3 in the second period.
Nick Baptiste had given Rochester a 3-1 lead midway through the second stanza.
Team captain Cal O’Reilly’s power play goal in the final minute of the period put the Amerks back in front, 4-3.
“That was big,” O’Reilly said. “I had a wide open net.”
Rochester’s fourth line of rookies Eric Cornel and Greece native Matthew Lane, along with third-year pro Justin Kea, did not see much ice time. However, when they did hit the ice in the third period, Cornel scored what proved to be the game-winning goal off a nice pass from Kea.
Lane achieved his first professional point with an assist on the play as well.
“I had a lot of family and friends here,” Lane said. “First point as an Amerk and first professional point, it’s pretty cool. Fortunately, we won the game and won our home opener…It’s a good feeling in the locker room right now.”
Alex Nylander, the Sabres first-round 2016 pick (8th overall), picked up his first professional point as he assisted on Schneider’s first goal.
“I just try to make plays out there and work hard,” said the 18-year-old Swede.
The Amerks travel to Syracuse on Saturday night for the Crunch home opener, then the two teams return to Rochester for a 5:05 faceoff on Sunday.
Amerk Nick Baptiste was called up to the Buffalo Sabres to accompany them when they leave for a West Coast trip on Saturday, taking the place of Evander Kane, who suffered broke ribs in Buffalo’s season opening 4-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
*NOTES – Alex Nylander is the third first-round Buffalo Sabres draft pick to be making his professional debut with the Rochester Americans in the last four seasons (Zemgus Girgensons 2012-13 and Rasmus Ristolainen 2013-14…Amerks defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer signed with Rochester this past summer after he skated 74 games with Hershey last season and helped the Bears to the Calder Cup Final where they lost to the Lake Erie Monsters, now the Cleveland Monsters. Burgdoerfer and defenseman Justin Falk are the assistant captains this season for the Amerks…This is Rochester’s 35th season as the AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres…The Amerks are 31-23-7 in all-time season-opening games, outscoring their opponents 232-210.
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Cole Schneider interview – https://youtu.be/uNYzz30wNAY
Cal O’Reilly interview – https://youtu.be/m8cnUdSTs5A
Alex Nylander interview – https://youtu.be/ZEp3oDc5xBI
Matthew Lane interview – https://youtu.be/NkRuf_JpB7Q
Coach Dan Lambert interview – https://youtu.be/eB9eO9boFl0