Rochester’s loss to the Comets hurts more with Belleville’s win.
By CRAIG POTTER / C&C Worldwide Sports Director
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Americans 3-1 loss to the Utica Comets Wednesday night before 3,373 fans at the Blue Cross Arena proved costly in more ways than one.
The Amerks (31-19-4-5) lead over the Comets (32-21-3-2) for second place in the North Division shrunk to 2 points (71 to 69) as Utica also has a game-in-hand over Rochester. A Comets win in that game-in-hand would propel Utica into second on criteria as Rochester would drop to third place, despite being tied in points.
In addition, the Amerks fell 10 points behind first place Belleville as the Senators doubled-up the Toronto Marlies, 8-4, Wednesday night as well.
The red-hot B-Sens play host to the Amerks for a pair of games this weekend. Rochester has 1 game-in-hand on Belleville as the Amerks need two regulation wins over the Senators to remain in contention for the North Division title with 17 games left in the regular season.
“They score a lot of goals and they’re a good team,” said head coach Chris Taylor of the Senators. “They skate well and they play well. We’ve got to make sure that we’re ready.”
Utica opened the scoring in the first period off a turnover by defenseman Casey Nelson, who returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 8. Rochester held a 13-9 advantage in shots in the stanza.
“We are getting great goaltending but seem to be snake bitten,” said Nelson. “We just need to continue to bear down and score some goals. We are doing a good job at playing our game, but we need to just keep putting pucks to the net.”
The Amerks tied the game in the second stanza when Taylor Leier backhanded a shot in the slot off assists to Jean-Sebastien Dea and Jacob Bryson.
“I was on the weak-side of the ice and just tried to be patient, finding a passing lane,” said Leier of his power-play goal. “J-S made a nice pass and I didn’t have much of an angle on my forehand, so I went to the backhand and tried to get the puck up.”
Both goalies, Andrew Hammond of the Amerks (24 saves) and Michael DiPietro of the Comets (36 saves) kept the game close with some spectacular netminding.
“It can be kind of frustrating,” said Hammond. “We are playing well, but just not getting the results. Earlier in the season it can be easier to accept it, but as we’re nearing playoffs we know we need to make a big push and get our game going in the right direction.
“All we can control is just keep working and work on the things we need to improve. Hopefully we can turn the corner and find the results we’re looking for.”
Utica, however, finally broke the tie with 5:02 remaining in regulation. The Comets added an empty net goal to secure the victory and moved within 2 points of the second-place Amerks.
“We can talk about all the positives, but it’s all about getting the results,” said Taylor. “Scoring goals, keeping goals out of our own net at certain times of the game. We cannot let a goal in late in the game and we have to score earlier in the game. We cannot let things like that pass us by.
“We have to be better in every area. We can say we out-chanced them, outshot them, but at the end of the night, they got on the bus with two points and we got nothing.”
*NOTES — On the strength of a 16-6-3-5 home record, Rochester was tied with Milwaukee for the second-fewest regulation losses in the AHL and have the fifth-most points on home ice (40). Only the Hartford Wolf Pack have fewer regulation losses at home this season…Jacob Bryson was seventh among all first-year defensemen with a plus-10 on-ice rating. Bryson, whose first two professional goals came in back-to-back games on Feb. 19 and 21, is also tied for ninth among all rookie blueliners with 21 points (2+19) in 58 games while his 19 assists are ninth-most…Rochester has collected at least one point in 19 of the last 26 games against Utica dating back to the start of the 2017-18 campaign, going 13-7-2-3 over that span…Former Amerk Justin Bailey, who recently returned from a two-game stint with Vancouver, has been one of Utica’s most dominant goal-scorers since the turn of the New Year, scoring 15 goals in his last 14 games, a stretch that also featured a season-long eight-game point streak. The Buffalo native scored three hat tricks in a four-game span in that stretch, including in back-to-back games against Hartford.