ROCHESTER, NY – The Rochester Americans scored three goals in the first period and added three more in the third as the Amerks silenced the league-leading Utica Comets with a decisive 7-4 win over their North Division rivals Friday night at The Blue Cross Arena. The win was the first of the year over Utica for the Amerks, who see their overall 
record improve to 8-8-1-0 while finally putting a stop to the AHL’s top team.
Tim Schaller factored in on five of Rochester’s seven goals, scoring twice, including the eventual game-winner, and assisting on three others for a career-high five-point night. Second-year forward Joel Armia finished with a goal and an assist for the Amerks, while rookie forward Jordan Samuels-Thomas scored two goals in the final two minutes, including the first of his professional career. Andrey Makarov received the nod in net, and stopped 31 of 35 shots on net.
Rochester’s defensive core also got in on the offense, with Matt MacKenzie and Mark Pysyk each finishing with a goal and an assist, and Jake McCabe recording a pair of helpers.
Brandon DeFazio scored two goals for Utica, while Dustin Jeffery and Alex Friesen also finished with tallies on the night. Former Amerk Jacob Markstrom started in net for the visiting Comets, and allowed a season-high six goals on the 32 shots he faced for his first regulation loss of the season.
The Amerks jumped ahead to a 1-0 lead just 29 seconds into the game when Pysyk drifted across the blueline and shot a puck around Matt Ellis’ screen and through Markstrom. The assist extends Ellis’ point streak to a season-long four games.
MacKenzie’s goal went in with similar fashion, when Armia slid a pass over to the veteran defenseman, whose shot snuck through another screen and in.
Already with an assist on the night, Armia grabbed the puck just outside the slot in front of Markstrom, spun, and went upstairs over the Utica netminder’s shoulder to put Rochester up 3-0 on the power-play with 58 seconds left in the opening period. The three-goal outburst was the most in the first period all season for the Amerks.
DeFazio put Utica on the board midway through the second period on the power-play after fighting off a check and slipping a free puck over Makarov’s shoulder to make it 3-1.
With the Amerks down a man later in the period, Nick Petrecki picked up the puck in the neutral zone and wired a shot on Markstrom from the outside. The Utica goaltender was unable to control the rebound, and the puck bounced off of a crashing Schaller’s skate and in.
Rochester’s three-goal lead didn’t last long, as DeFazio scored his second of the night less than a minute later to bring the score to 4-2.
After an extended shift in the Utica zone that saw the Amerks control the puck for nearly two minutes, the Comets generated their third goal off an odd-man rush finished by Friesen. Rochester came right back 16 seconds later on Schaller’s second of the night off of a rebound, securing another two-goal lead with just over eight minutes remaining in the game.
Samuels-Thomas would score both of his goals in the final two minutes of the game, with one into an empty net and the other with less than a second left, bringing the final score to 7-4.
