CRUNCH RALLY PAST AMERKS IN OVERTIME
Jan 19, 2022The Rochester Americans (19-11-2-1) built a two-goal lead 4:20 into the second period versus the Syracuse Crunch (14-11-3-1) on Wednesday night, but the Crunch rallied for three straight tallies to come away with a 3-2 overtime win at The Blue Cross Arena.
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | SO | FINAL |
| Syracuse | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | -- | 3 |
| Rochester | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -- | 2 |
POST-GAME REPORT GAME SUMMARY PHOTO GALLERY
Despite the overtime defeat, the Amerks have earned points in 14 of their last 20 games dating back to Nov. 19 and are 4-3-2-1 over their previous 10 games to pull within three points of Utica for first place in the AHL’s North Division standings. Rochester began the season-series with Syracuse with two straight wins but have since gone 0-2-1-0.
Tonight was the third straight game decided beyond regulation for Rochester, marking the team’s longest stretch of consecutive overtime games since four straight from Feb. 19 to Feb. 26 during the 2019-20 season.
Following his first-career four-goal outing this past Saturday against Belleville, Jack Quinn opened the scoring with his team-leading 18th goal of the season 24 seconds into the middle period from Michael Mersch. Second-year forward Brendan Warren completed the scoring with his third of the season to move within a goal of tying his AHL career-high of four he set last season with Rochester. Peter Tischke earned his first point with the Amerks as he produced an assist on Warren’s tally. It marked Tischke’s first AHL point since he scored on March 24, 2021 as a member of the Colorado Eagles.
WATCH: GAME HIGHLIGHTS
Goaltender Mat Robson (3-1-2) made 25 saves in his sixth appearance with the Amerks but suffered the overtime defeat.
Alex Barre-Boulet (0+3) notched his third consecutive multi-point game as he chipped in a season-high three assists while Gabriel Dumont scored twice for Syracuse, which has won three straight games versus Rochester. Cole Koepke scored the game-winning goal in the first minute of the extra frame while goaltender Hugo Alnefelt (6-3-2) earned his sixth win of the season by stopping 28 of the 30 shots he faced.
The Amerks scored back-to-back goals to take a 2-0 lead early in the second period following a scoreless opening 20 minutes of play as Quinn and Warren each found the back of the net.
WATCH: SETH APPERT POST-GAME
On Rochester’s first goal just 24 seconds into the frame, Mersch forced a turnover just inside the Crunch zone and knocked the puck free to Quinn near the wall. As the AHL’s top-scoring rookie gathered the puck, he took a few strides toward the center of the face-off dots before roofing a shot under the crossbar while Mersch was in front of Alnefelt.
Three minutes later, it appeared the Crunch were about to generate a scoring chance, however, a diving block from Tischke ended the play before the blueliner provided an outlet pass to Warren. The Amerks forward raced into the offensive zone with Brandon Biro, and as Warren reached the top of the crease, he wired a shot past the Syracuse the netminder to give Rochester a two-goal cushion at the 4:20 mark.
The Crunch, however, countered with two unanswered goals of their own before the end of the second period as Dumont rattled off back-to-back goals just 2:54 apart to even the score.
WATCH: BRENDAN WARREN POST-GAME
As the stanza was nearing its end, Dumont redirected Sean Day’s right point shot from just outside the goal crease to put the visitors on the board at the 16:59 mark.
After netting his 13th marker of the slate, Syracuse’s team captain corralled a loose rebound to the left of Robson and swatted it over the right shoulder of the netminder to even the score at 2-2 with seven seconds left in the period.
During the final period, after Rochester outshot Syracuse 14-6 and was unable to capitalize on pair of Crunch penalties in succession, the game went to overtime as the score remained knotted at two.
The Amerks won the faceoff to start the extra frame, but after intercepting a pass in the neutral zone, Koepke skated the puck along the right side of the ice before snapping a shot past Robson to lift the Crunch to the 3-2 win.
|
SYRACUSE |
GAMECENTER |
ROCHESTER |
|
G. Dumont (13, 14), C. Koepke (8) |
GOAL-SCORERS |
J. Quinn (18), B. Warren (3) |
|
H. Alnefelt – 28/30 (W) |
GOALTENDERS |
M. Robson – 25/28 (OTL) |
|
0-1 |
POWER-PLAY |
0-3 |
|
3-3 |
PENALTY KILL |
1-1 |
|
28 |
SHOTS ON GOAL |
30 |