By CRAIG POTTER
Nick Baptiste scores twice to tie the game in the 3rd; Kyle Criscuolo nets the game-winner.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Despite trailing 3-0 entering the third period, the Rochester Americans had confidence in themselves that they could prevail against the Laval Rocket.
The visitors from Quebec Providence, the new AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, were making their first-ever visit to the Flower City in the back end of the home-and-home series this week. The Amerks notched a 5-2 victory Wednesday in Laval.
The Rocket scored first once again, but this time established a 3-0 advantage after two periods of play, and led the Amerks 26-17 in shots before 2,856 fans at the Blue Cross Arena.
“It wasn’t fun getting booed off in the second period,” said Amerks coach Chris Taylor. “Goals are going to happen, mistakes are going to happen, but it’s how you respond to those mistakes that makes you a good team. We have good leadership that helped on the bench tonight.
“(Goalie Linus) Ullmark was good for us in the second period. It could have been five. That’s what we need him to keep it in control to give us a chance to comeback.”
The Amerks came out and dominated the third stanza as they fired a season-high 29 shots on Laval goalie Charlie Lindgren.
“Despite being down to enter the third, we talked as a group that we were only three shots away from tying the game,” Nick Baptiste said. “We knew if we got back to our game and played the right way, we could come back and win the game.”
Rochester, however, wasn’t able to capitalize until the final two minutes when they got a power play, and also pulled Ullmark for a 6-on-4 advantage with 1:53 remaining in regulation.
Baptiste, who tallied his first goal of the season Wednesday night, scored on the power play to cut the deficit to 3-2. Following the faceoff, which the Amerks control, Ullmark once again headed to the bench for a 6-on-5 advantage.
Baptiste fired home a rebound, off a Brendan Guhle shot, to knot the count at 3-3 and force the overtime.
In the extra period, team captain Kevin Porter was a victim of the new slashing rule as he was called for the penalty 54 seconds into the session as he was trying to stop a Rocket breakaway.
However, the Rocket never got a shot on goal. Defenseman Barry Goers brought the puck into the Laval zone, spotted Kyle Criscuolo and sent the puck to him.
“After winning the puck-battle behind the net, I saw no one was pressuring me,” Goers said. “I noticed their defensemen were flat-footed, so I figured I try to make a play. Criscuolo recognized what I saw and we had an odd-man rush.”
Criscuolo beat Lindgren for the game-winner.
“When I got the puck, I just tried to hold it and shoot far side,” said Crisuolo, who then buried his own rebound to complete the comeback.
“A win like this brings the group together,” said Taylor. “It was a good win, but we have to bring it tomorrow night. We have to be ready to play tomorrow and that is what good teams do, they bring it every night on a consistent basis.”
*NOTES – The Amerks close out the first month of the campaign Saturday when they play host to the Syracuse Crunch at 7:05 pm. Rochester looks to improve to 3-0-0-0 against the Crunch after completing the 2-game sweep to begin the season…Dating back to last season, Rochester’s penalty kill has successfully killed off 44 of 50 penalties (88%) in its last 11 games…Rocket forward Nick Delauriers appeared in 5 games with the Amerks in 2013-14 before being traded by Buffalo to the Montreal Canadiens prior to the start of this regular season.
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Kyle Criscuolo scores game-winner – https://youtu.be/xBPekDy_Qzg
Nick Baptiste scores the tying goal – https://youtu.be/TTBkdkZRvQc
Sahir Gill scores the Amerks 1st goal — https://youtu.be/3IS0GljEdqA