By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester averts a shutout in the 5-1 loss to the Utica Comets.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Hockey can be a strange game at times, and no team knows that than the Rochester Americans.
The Amerks had just 5 shots on goal Friday night against the Charlotte Checkers and held a 2-0 lead. But they eventually lost the game, 5-2.
Rochester fired 22 shots on Utica goalie Thatcher Demko in the first period, but trailed 3-0 as the Comets converted on 3 power plays while taking only 6 shots in the stanza.
“Hockey is a funny game,” said defenseman Andrew MacWilliam. “Sometimes you play better than the other team and you don’t get the outcome…Overall, I think we can be happy with that effort.”
“We got the start that we wanted to, but we took too many penalties and our penalty killing didn’t do a very good job tonight,” said Amerks head coach Chris Taylor. “They had six shots on net in the first and we were down three. That’s tough, but again I like how we bounced back in the second, bounced back in the third. We outshot them and it was one of our better 60 minutes of hockey.”
Rochester fired 41 shots on goal as Utica took 27 shots on the Amerks net.
After yielding the 3 goals on 6 shots, Taylor pulled starting goalie Adam Wilcox at the start of the second period and inserted Linus Ullmark, who had been pulled Friday night after giving up the fourth goal in the second period in the 5-2 loss to the Charlotte Checkers.
“It was just because we were down three nothing that we had to change it up,” Taylor said of the switch to Ullmark. “I thought he (Ullmark) played well and made some big saves for us to get his confidence back.”
Ullmark turned aside 19 of 21 shots versus the Comets.
“We played well in the first period,” said Amerks captain Kevin Porter, “(but) they get an early goal. The penalty kill was not great tonight. The power play was not great tonight. It’s a big part of the game.”
Rochester entered the contest having killed off 100 percent of all its penalties over the first four games of the season. The Comets ended up scoring on 50 percent (4-of-8) of their power plays tonight.
Two of Rochester’s defensemen, Zach Redmond and Taylor Fedun, were on callups to the Buffalo Sabres so some new people were needed to play on special teams for this game.
Amerks rookie C.J. Smith spoiled Demko’s bid for a second straight shutout in Rochester with 6:11 left in the game with his second goal of the season from Steve Moses and Brendan Guhle.
The Amerks return to action Wednesday when they make their first-ever trip to Place Bell to face the Laval Rocket in the front-end of a home-and-home series.
*NOTES – The Buffalo Sabres on Saturday announced the team recalled defenseman Zach Redmond from the Rochester Americans. Redmond (29, 6-foot-2, 212 lbs.) joins the Sabres for his first recall since being acquired on Oct. 4 from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Nicolas Deslauriers. In four games this season, he is tied for the Amerks’ team lead in points (3), assists (2) and plus/minus rating (plus-2). Selected by the Atlanta Thrashers in the seventh round (184th overall) of the 2008 NHL Draft, Redmond has appeared in parts of five NHL seasons, totaling 38 points (9+29) and a plus-11 rating in 130 games with Montreal, the Colorado Avalanche and the Winnipeg Jets. The Traverse City, Michigan native has recorded 103 points (30+73) in 194 career regular-season AHL games, adding 19 points (4+15) in 35 AHL postseason contests. In a corresponding move, the Sabres have placed defenseman Josh Gorges on injured reserve…Defenseman Nathan Paetsch, wearing a cast on his right leg, is expected to be out at least 6 more weeks with his injury.