By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester earns its first win in 6 games this season over the Crunch with a 5-1 triumph.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Americans ended a 5-game losing streak to the Thruway rival Syracuse Crunch on Monday night with a 5-1 victory before 4,762 fans at the Blue Cross Arena.
The visitors from the Salt City opened the scoring with a fluke goal that bounced off of defenseman Casey Nelson’s glove and over goalie Linus Ullmark shoulder 6 minutes into the contest.
Ullmark made several great saves to keep the Crunch off the scoreboard the remainder of the game as he finished with 25 saves against the North Division leaders.
However, the Amerks with 2 goals 27 seconds apart about 3 minutes later to take the lead for good.
“That was huge for us,” said head coach Dan Lambert, talking about the response from the Amerks. “It was important that we answered right away because we haven’t had very much luck against Syracuse this season.
“The Crunch are a momentum team, so they could have very easily controlled the game had they had a lead after the first.”
Justin Bailey continued his hot streak with a power play goal to knot the game.
“I felt good tonight, but as a team, we played a full 60 minutes tonight,” Bailey said. “We did the things we needed to do to earn the win. The team did a great job sticking to our game plan even after they scored the first goal and we responded the right way and hopefully we can continue to carry the momentum we are on as of late.”
Evan Rodrigues netted what proved to be the game-winner as he kept hacking away from the left side of Syracuse goalie Adam Wilcox and finally got the puck by him for a 2-1 lead.
Veteran Dan Catenacci gave Rochester a 3-1 advantage with 7 minutes left in the first period.
Rochester tacked on a pair of insurance markers in the third period. Bailey went in on a breakaway, off a pass from Tim Kennedy, to score his 12th goal of the season.
“We got behind but I thought we stayed the course and played the right way,” said Kennedy. “As a team, we had some lucky bounces and sometimes against a good team like Syracuse you will take whatever you can get. The win was big, though.”
Cole Schneider ended the scoring with his 11th goal of the season.
The Amerks continue their longest homestand of the campaign on Wednesday when they play host to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at 7:05 pm. The Amerks conclude the homestand on Friday night, also against the Phantoms.
*NOTES — Justin Bailey scored his 10th goal of the season in the 4-1 loss to the Binghamton Senators prior to the Christmas break. He became the third Amerks this season to reach that mark. Cole Schneider and Nick Baptiste also have reached the 10-goal mark…Amerks rookie Alex Nylander currently is playing with Team Sweden in the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship taking place in Toronto and Montreal from now until Jan. 5…Cole Schneider (11+17) and Cal O’Reilly (5+23) share the team lead in points with 28, and are tied for 8th place in the league…O’Reilly is second in the league in assists with 23…Entering the game with the Syracuse Crunch, the Amerks were 0-5 in the season series.
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Justin Bailey pp goal – https://youtu.be/yPTsZcKxREk
Linus Ullmark save – https://youtu.be/R7LxhMtgqls
3rd period Fights – https://youtu.be/Edc-vXwo6Bw
Justin Bailey interview – https://youtu.be/9u4qHDqEbCk
Tim Kennedy interview – https://youtu.be/3ivhhIHBHLQ
Coach Dan Lambert interview – https://youtu.be/Z1wXPA28Xiw