By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester rallies then holds off the Albany Devils, 5-4.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Americans came back three times from a 1-goal deficit, then took the lead and held on for a 5-4 victory over the Albany Devils in the final home game of the season before 7,335 fans at the Blue Cross Arena on Friday night.
Hudson Fasching’s breakaway goal early in the third period proved to be the game-winner for Rochester.
Evan Rodrigues continued his hot play, since returning following the end of the Buffalo Sabres season, with 3 assists.
The Devils took 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 leads but a goal by Casey Nelson, and power play tallies from Alex Nylander and Derek Grant accounted for the equalizers.
Entering the third period tied, Justin Bailey put the Amerks in front for the first time, 4-3.
“The late goal in the second period and then the early one by Bailey were huge for us,” said Rodrigues. “It definitely swung the game in our direction and carried us during the third.”
About 4 minutes later Fasching intercepted a pass and broke in alone on goalie Ken Appleby and beat him to the top right corner for what proved to be the game-winning goal.
“As a team, no one got frustrated after they took the lead,” Bailey said. “We stuck to our game plan and what was working. We are playing probably our best hockey of the season right now and guys are playing loose and having fun.”
The Devils cut the margin to one in the final minute with a flurry in front of Rochester netminder Linus Ullmark, who finished with 30 saves.
When asked to assess the season, Amerks coach Dan Lambert said, “Our start to the season wasn’t bad. I think it took a while for us to understand this league and what we need to do…When you look at the call-ups we had early in the season (due to injuries in Buffalo), it put a lot of people in the wrong spot in the lineup, which really put us in a deep hole.
“We had at times 5-6 players from the East Coast Hockey League in our lineup, so that was very unfortunate but it was what we dealt with. Certainly losing (defensemen Justin) Falk and (Taylor) Fedun (to Buffalo), they were the backbone for our side. It’s nice to see other guys step up now.”
Lambert added, “We certainly didn’t have this lineup but if we would have had this lineup, things would have been different.”
Links
Rochester Americans – amerks.com
Videos
Alex Nylander pp goal – https://youtu.be/Xfw27MQEDV4
Derek Grant pp goal – https://youtu.be/1OT3v4y8w58
Hudson Fasching goal – https://youtu.be/fqpTtbN9Qkc
Evan Rodrigues interview – https://youtu.be/UXYHszNGiGo
Justin Bailey interview – https://youtu.be/Bpma4Nxz_Ws
Dan Lambert interview – https://youtu.be/-FqQ-3inaq4