The Amerks came into this evening’s game having lost two in a row and needing a win. The solution? Power up the power play.
Things didn’t start all roses tonight – after the Amerks came out of the gate with some jump and dominated the early shifts, the Griffins answered by scoring on their first real chance to take the 1-0 lead. After falling behind, the Amerks seemed to deflate and couldn’t get much going for the rest of the first, getting trapped in their own zone repeatedly for the rest of the period.
The second period started as poorly as the first period ended for Rochester, as the Amerks quickly fell behind 2-0 on a shot from the point tipped in by Griffins forward Landon Ferarro, but the home team quickly responded with a goal of their own as team captain Kevin Porter stole the puck in the offensive zone and floated a beauty of a pass that was put home nicely by rookie Brian Flynn; the goal was Flynn’s first as a professional. The Amerks continued to pour it on in the second half of the period, finally tying the game on a well placed power play one-timer from TJ Brennan, with the assist from Brayden McNabb, and ended the period tied at 2.
The Amerks third period was jump started after forward Nick Tarnasky got tripped up in the defensive zone and handily won the subsequent fight. On the power play that followed, Phil Varone scored on a rebound after a back door sneak-shot by Mark Pysyk, who looked very good tonight. Marcus Foligno added another power play goal later in the period, his fourth of the season, on a nice low shot by Cody Hodgson, with TJ Brennan snagging the secondary assist. The Griffins scored a late goal to make it 4-3 after Leggio got knocked around with no call, but the Amerks held on for the victory.
The Amerks improved to 2-2 with the win, and will play their next game in Buffalo at The First Niagara Center against the Hamilton Bulldogs. Tickets start at $15 for a chance to see the Amerks without driving to Rochester.
Notes: The Game marked the professional debut of the highly interesting prospect Frederick Roy, who is contractually obligated to have “son of NHL legend Patrick Roy” appear after his name. It also marked the return to Buffalo of former Sabre Nathan Paetsch, who assisted on the Griffins second goal.