By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester squanders 2-0 and 3-1 leads against the IceCaps.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Americans played a strong first period against the St. John’s IceCaps on Friday night before 5,874 fans at the Blue Cross Arena.
The Amerks jumped out to a 2-0 in the opening session as rookie Alex Nylander slapped home a pass across the St. John’s crease from Justin Bailey for a 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later, a shot by defenseman Casey Nelson on a power play deflected off Bailey and past IceCaps goalie Charlie Lindgren for the 2-0 margin.
“We had a really good first period,” said Bailey. “While there were penalties for both team, it slowed the game down, but both teams had to play through that. During the first period, we showed ourselves what can happen when we get pucks deep and we execute offensively. Unfortunately, we let them back in the game by taking the penalties and St. John’s was able to gain some momentum from it to climb back into the game.”
Late in the period, the visitors from Newfoundland, Canada got on the scored 5 seconds after Mac Bennett received a cross-checking penalty.
Rochester regained its 2-goal advantage when Nelson ripped a shot from the right circle past Lindgren.
“I thought Casey (Nelson) played a strong game tonight,” said head coach Dan Lambert. “He looked good and poised while making some plays and I think he also looked like a young professional tonight and that’s obvious when you see he had a goal and an assist.”
However, Nelson was victimized when he attempted to clear the puck from the slot in front of Amerks goalie Linus Ullmark, but passed it right to Markus Eisenschmid, who whipped a shot past Ullmark to make it a 1-goal game, 3-2.
St. John’s knotted the count at 3-3 early in the third stanza on a blasted shot from inside the blue line by Josiah Didier.
Ullmark was spectacular in the overtime period as the Amerks entered the extra session killing of the remaining 1:36 of a penalty to Nelson. Ullmark finished the game with 28 saves as it went to a shootout.
“I thought we had a really strong game,” Lambert said. “During the second period both teams played a close defensive game and it was a really good game. We can take a lot of positives from this game and I was very happy with our guys’ performance tonight.”
Nick Baptiste led off the shootout for the Amerks and scored, but the IceCaps scored on their first and fourth shots to win the game. Nylander, Cole Schneider, and Evan Rodrigues were unable to score on their shootout chances.
*NOTES — The Buffalo Sabres assigned forwards Nicholas Baptiste and Evan Rodrigues to the Rochester Americans…Cal O’Reilly took over the AHL lead in points with his assist for 18 points. Cole Schneider is in second place with 17 points. O’Reilly leads the Amerks in goals with 14 as Schneider is second with 10…The Amerks entered the game not having allowed a power play goal at the BCA over the last 4 games before St. John’s scored on its second power play opportunity…The Amerks have a game in Utica on Saturday night against the Comets. They return home to the BCA on Wednesday night against Providence, then play at home on Friday after Thanksgiving against Utica.
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Casey Nelson interview – https://youtu.be/CVAIm7oSrPo
Justin Bailey interview – https://youtu.be/t1MNTbfcWP4
Dan Lambert interview – https://youtu.be/XvMhsn_0FNI