By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester holds on for a 3-2 victory over the Binghamton Senators.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Americans ended their 4-game losing skid with a 3-2 victory over the Binghamton Senators on the back end of the home-and-home series with their Southern Tier opponent on Sunday night before 5,280 fans at the Blue Cross Arena.
Former Amerk Jason Akeson put the B-Sens in front with a power play goal about 6 minutes into the game. Another former Amerk, Phil Varone, also assisted on the play.
Former B-Sens player, defenseman Patrick Mullen, netted the equalizer about 8 minutes later. Tim Kennedy and Eric Cornel drew assists on the goal.
“Patrick is an offensive guy,” said Amerks head coach Dan Lambert. “He has the ability to make plays and he certainly has a great shot to go with his play making ability, so those two things are big for us.”
Shortly into the second period, Rochester rookie Alex Nylander ended his scoring drought, dating back to Dec. 10, to give the Amerks a 2-1 lead.
Nylander danced around a Binghamton defender and fired a shot that snuck under the left pad of netminder Chris Driedger. The goal was Nylander’s sixth of the campaign, and his second point in two straight games. Nylander had just 2 assists in 14 games since returning to the Amerks from the World Junior Championship where he led Team Sweden in scoring.
“It feels really good to get that goal,” said Nylander. “I have been getting a lot of chances over the last several games but just have not been able to capitalize, so tonight’s goal was big for my confidence.”
Cole Schneider and Taylor Fedun, who was re-assigned earlier in the day, received assists on the play.
Rookie forward Vaclav Karabacek tallied his second goal of the season about 6 minutes later that proved to be the game-winner. Kennedy and Brady Austin received assists on the play.
Binghamton was able to pull within a goal with five minutes remaining in the contest, but Linus Ullmark held off the visitors as he finished with 20 saves to preserve the 3-2 win for the Amerks.
“I liked a lot of things tonight,” said. Lambert “I felt when we were down a goal it was off an unlucky bounce but we stuck to the game plan and tied the game. While we did not score on the power-play, we had a lot of shots on the goalie and our penalty kill unit had a very timely kill later in the game.”
For the fifth straight year, the Amerks make the trek down the New York State Thruway to play in the home of the Buffalo Sabres when they host the Utica Comets in a North Division showdown at the KeyBank Center. The 7:05 pm matchup will be broadcast live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM ESPN Rochester, and also will be televised on MSG.
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Jean Dupuy shot – https://youtu.be/mGgqTvhsZwo
Daniel Muzito-Bagenda SH shot – https://youtu.be/-tJpj_yOwO0
Linus Ullmark save final 2 minutes – https://youtu.be/2hAneU6_PTY
Patrick Mullen interview – https://youtu.be/Y9-lC94a9nE
Alex Nylander interview – https://youtu.be/uGNkSvJXL0o
Dan Lambert interview – https://youtu.be/z90mCzHhDwk