The Senators score twice late in the third period to pull out a 5-4 win.
By CRAIG POTTER
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The last two Wednesdays have not been kind to the Rochester Americans at the Blue Cross Arena.
The Amerks squandered a 3-goal lead twice as the Belleville Senators snapped a season-long 4-game losing streak, all coming on the road, to pull out a 5-4 victory before 2,865 fans at the BCA.
“We have to be mentally stronger in situations when we have the lead,” said Amerks assistant captain Nathan Paetsch, who was plying in just his second game of the season. “You could kind of see the game slipping away from us as we weren’t playing well and they just kept coming and coming. We need to be better moving forward.”
A week ago Wednesday, Rochester was blitzed by the Binghamton Devils, 5-1.
Despite being outshot 12-5 in the first period by the Senators, Rochester built a 3-0 lead and chased starting goalie Marcus Hogberg just 11 minutes into the contest.
“We should have felt lucky that we were up 3-0 as pucks were going in for us but it was not a good start,” said Amerks head coach Chris Taylor. “It was not a good start, it wasn’t a good middle and it wasn’t a good finish.”
Victor Olofsson, Eric Cornel, and C.J. Smith propelled Rochester to the 3-0 advantage.
The Senators broke into the scoring column with a power play tally late in the stanza.
Olofsson, the rookie from Sweden, netted his second goal of the contest, and 10th of the season, against backup goalie Filip Gustavsson to give the Amerks a 3-goal lead once again.
“I don’t think we played the way that we are capable of,” said Olofsson after his fifth multi-point game of the season. “When we did have the lead, it didn’t feel comfortable as we let up way too many scoring chances and eventually it came back to bite us.”
However, Belleville started its comeback with a pair of tallies in the second period against Rochester goalie Scott Wedgewood, and tacked on the tying and winning goals in the final 3 minutes of regulation.
“I think that we were outworked tonight and that is the disappointing part,” said Taylor. “There is no reason that we should have lost tonight. We seem to struggle against the Binghamton’s, Belleville’s and Utica’s. When we don’t play the way we should, we end up getting these types of results.”
Gustavsson stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced to pick up the win for Belleville.
*NOTES — The Buffalo Sabres placed forward Patrik Berglund on irrevocable waivers on Wednesday…Coming into tonight’s game, the Amerks have on 7 of their last 9 games while earning 38 out of a possible 50 points in the last 25 contests. Rochester holds a 5-point lead atop the North Divsion heading into this week’s games…The Amerks close out their schedule before Christmas break by playing host to the Hartford Wolf Pack in back-to-back games Friday and Saturday with 7:05 pm and 5:05 pm starts, respectively…Former Amerk blueliner Erik Burgdoefer is in his second season with Belleville. The Senators captain just was re-assigned from Ottawa this week…Another former Amerk, defenseman Stuart Percy, returned to the Flower City after tallying career-bests in every offensive categoryu last season with Rochester. He scored the tying goal for the Senators…Amerks forward Alex Nylander was a scratch with a lower body injury. He is listed as day-to-day.
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Rochester Americans goalie Scott Wedgewood makes a save in the first period against the Belleville Senators during a penalty kill on Wednesday night (12/19/18) before 2,865 fans at the Blue Cross Arena. The Amerks squandered 3-0 and 4-1 leads and lost to the Senators, 5-4.
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