The Rochester Americans closed out their 2014-15 season with a 5-3 win over the Adirondack Flames on Sunday at the Glens Falls Civic Center as Mikhail Grigorenko and Jayden Hart each scored two goals for the Amerks.
The Amerks finish the year with a record of 29-41-5-1 (64 points). For the third time in 
the last four seasons, Phil Varone finishes as Rochester’s leading scorer with 44 points (15+29) in 55 games while Jerome Leduc was the only Amerk to appear in all 76 of the team’s games.
In addition to Grigorenko and Hart each tallying two goals in Sunday’s win, Colin Jacobs scored his first of the year to round out the scoring. Johan Larsson collected two assists while Eric Cornel picked up his first professional point with an assist. Sam Reinhart also registered an assist to give him three points in three games with the Amerks to close out the year. Chad Ruhwedel, Tim Schaller, Mark Pysyk and Leduc each recorded a helper as well. In goal, Matt Hackett stopped 22 of 25 shots to earn the win, giving him a record of 8-5-3 in 16 games with the Amerks this season.
Bill Arnold, Taylor Vause and Brant Harris each scored a goal for Adirondack while goaltender Brad Thiessen finished with 31 saves in the loss for the Flames.
Adirondack opened the scoring on Sunday at the 7:50 mark of the first period when Arnold capitalized on a partial breakaway chance. After a long pass from deep in the defensive zone by Dustin Stevenson to Emile Poirier, the puck ended up on the stick of Arnold, who rushed up the right-wing side, faked a slap shot and slid the puck around Hackett for the goal.
In the final minute of the first period, Hart tied the game when he tipped in a Larsson shot for his third goal of the season. Larsson intercepted a clearing attempt by Adirondack, turned toward the net and fired a shot on goal from the top of the right circle. Hart was stationed in front of the Adirondack net and deflected the shot past Thiessen for the equalizer with just 18 seconds left in the frame.
Rochester opened the second period on the power play and took the lead just 55 seconds in. Reinhart collected the puck behind the net and passed it to Cornel in the corner. Cornel quickly sent a pass to the high slot for Grigorenko, whose wrist shot beat Thiessen to the stick side, giving the Amerks their first lead of the day.
The Flames tied things back up when Vause found himself all alone in front and one-timed a pass from Mathieu Tousignant past Hackett for the goal. Hart would score his second goal of the game, however, to give the Amerks back their one-goal lead with less than five minutes to play in the second. Ruhwedel’s blast from the point was denied by Thiessen, but Hart was there to knock in the rebound for his second goal of the game and fourth of the season.
Jacobs’ first goal of the season gave the Amerks a 4-2 lead in the third period and was the result of a beautiful cross-ice pass from Pysyk. The score stayed that way until the final 90 seconds of the game, when Grigorenko scored an empty-net goal and Harris tacked on a late goal for the Flames, making it a 5-3 final score in favor of the Amerks.
With Amerks game report
