Despite JJ Peterka’s hat trick, Rochester falls to Cleveland, 5-4.
CLEVELAND, OH. — The Rochester Americans (31-25-5-3) erased a 4-0 first-period deficit and received a hat trick from rookie forward JJ Peterka, but Cole Fonstad’s late second-period tie-breaking goal ultimately proved to be the difference as the Amerks came up short in a 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Monsters (24-27-8-4) in the first of consecutive meetings between the two teams Friday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Despite the loss, Rochester has points in seven of its last nine games while also showing a 35-14-4-4 mark against the Monsters dating back to the start of the 2010-11 season. In seven of the last eight matchups with Cleveland, including tonight, the Amerks have tallied at least once in the first 20 minutes of play.
With three goals tonight, Peterka became the third Amerk this season to reach the 20-goal mark, joining Jack Quinn and Michael Mersch, and just the seventh rookie in the AHL to do so. Peterka has notched 35 points (16+19) in 35 games to begin 2022 and shows a team-leading 55 points (20+35) through 58 games this season.
Josh Teves booked his fifth goal of the season in the second period while Mark Jankowski, Arttu Ruotsalainen, Ryan MacInnis and Quinn all recorded one assist. Mark Alt and Lukas Rousek both picked up their first points as Amerks as they each chipped in a helper in the second period.
Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (11-12-4) made 29 saves in what was his third straight appearance in the crease, but suffered the loss. In 12 of his 27 appearances this season, Luukkonen has stopped 30 or more shots, including five of his last seven games.
Robbie Payne (2+0), Cole Cassels (1+1) and Fonstad (1+1) each recorded a pair of points in the front-end of a back-to-back set with the Amerks. Defenseman Jake Christiansen picked up his 12th goal of the season to complete the scoring while netminder Cam Johnson (4-4-2) stopped a season-high 38 shots he faced to even his record.
After opening up a 4-0 lead and seeing Rochester storm back with four straight goals of its own midway through the second period, Cleveland used its timeout before drawing a pair of penalties.
On the second man-advantage, Luukkonen made a diving stop on Cassels from just inside the left face-off dot. However, Cassels tracked the puck behind the net before centering it for Fonstad, who roofed a shot to regain the Monsters one-goal lead with 2:25 remaining in the stanza.
In the final 20 minutes of regulation, the Amerks outshot the Monsters 10-4, had a power-play opportunity of their own and eventually pulled Luukkonen, but could not find the equalizer.
Cleveland jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead 13:14 into the contest, which included a pair of tallies in the first 65 seconds, before Rochester could respond to stop the run.
Following his first goal of the night in the final minute of play during the opening period, Peterka buried a one-time feed from Quinn to trim the lead to 4-2 just 3:07 into the middle frame.
With his assist, Quinn has logged 14 points (5+9) over his last eight games since Mar. 5 and has not gone more than two games all season without a point.
A mere 3:31 after Peterka scored his second goal of the night, Teves walked the blueline before wiring a shot from the center point to pull Rochester within one as Alt and Jankowski each picked up the assists on the play.
To cap off his three-goal performance, Peterka flipped a nifty drop-pass from Rousek over the left arm of Johnson with 9:09 left in the frame.
Cleveland answered back with Fonstad’s goal before the end of the second period before holding on for the 5-4 win.
The Amerks close out the weekend set with another go-round against the Monsters on Saturday, April 2 at 7 p.m.
Ruotsalainen honored
The American Hockey League announced on Friday that Rochester Americans forward Arttu Ruotsalainen has been named the AHL Player of the Month for March.
Ruotsalainen scored eight goals and added 10 assists for 18 points in 13 games for Rochester during March.
He began the month with back-to-back two-goal efforts, on Mar. 2 vs. Syracuse and as part of a three-point night in a 3-2 overtime victory on Mar. 4 at Belleville. He tallied two assists on Mar. 9 vs. Laval, and then authored a seven-game scoring streak that began with an assist on the game-winning goal in a 3-2 decision at Utica on Mar. 12. Ruotsalainen notched a goal and an assist in the Amerks’ 6-5 overtime win vs. Cleveland on Mar. 19, and posted his fifth multi-point game of the month with a goal and two assists against Bridgeport on Mar. 27.
Ruotsalainen registered 16 goals and 26 assists for 42 points in 44 games for Rochester this season, while adding two goals and two assists in 18 NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres. A 24-year-old native of Oulu, Finland, Ruotsalainen signed as a free agent with Buffalo on May 8, 2019, and joined the organization last season after having played with Assat Pori and Ilves Tampere in Finland’s SM-liiga. Over two North American seasons, he has 21 goals and 34 assists in 57 games with the Amerks, along with seven goals and three assists in 35 contests with the Sabres.