ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Syracuse Crunch scored the game’s first goal and last two, but the Rochester Americans potted four inbetween for a 4-3 victory at Blue Cross Arena Wednesday.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, reassigned to Syracuse earlier in the day by Tampa Bay, made his first Crunch appearances since Jan. 31. He made 30 saves on 34 shots and slipped to 14-6-5 in 25 appearances. Rochester’s Matt Hackett, starting on consecutive days for the first time this year, stopped 27 of 30 shots and improved to 6-4-1 in 11 games.
Yanni Gourde’s team-leading 19th goal of the year opened the scoring at 11:34 of the first during four-on-four play. Vladislav Namestnikov created the play on the Crunch half of the ice and found Joey Mormina whose centering pass from the left wing found Gourde crashing the net.
An Amerks power-play goal evened the score less than three minutes later. Jerome Leduc was set up for a left-wing drive by Jerry D’Amigo and Brady Austin. D’Amingo, Austin and Tim Schaller each finished with two assists.
Late in an otherwise even second frame, Brayden Irwin tugged the momentum in Rochester’s favor with his 12th goal at 18:08. Justin Kea’s open-ice hit on Henri Ikonen and subsequent fight with Mike Angelidis further secured control for Rochester going to the third period.
Zac Dalpe, finishing on a William Carrier feed to the net mouth, put the Amerks ahead, 3-1, at 7:50 of the third. Irwin struck again at 13:13 from between the circles for his 13th of the season. D’Amigo and Schaller assisted.
With his team trailing 4-1 with less than six minutes to play, Syracuse head coach Rob Zettler pulled Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker. Joey Mormina’s goal on a center-point shot began the comeback bid, seconds after a Mike Angelidis faceoff win.
Jonathan Marchessault had the primary assists on Mormina’s third goal of the year and a Namestnikov tip-in goal at 17:15. Marchessault’s 43 points lead the team. Jake Dotchin garnered the second assist on Namestnikov’s 13th, as the Crunch pulled within one goal. Syracuse could not find the equalizer, and its three-game win streak ended.
With Syracuse game report
