ROCHESTER, NY – Colby Robak scored his third goal of the season with just 18 seconds left in regulation to knot the contest at three and Jason Akeson converted in the second round of the shootout as the Rochester Americans rallied to defeat the visiting St. John’s IceCaps by a 4-3 count Friday at The Blue Cross Arena. The Amerks, who improve to 9-9-1-0 in the win, have now gone to overtime in four of their last five games, including four straight on home ice.
Nick Baptiste opened the scoring for Rochester late in the first period and Chad Ruhwedel scored for the second straight game on the power-play. Team captain Cal 
O’Reilly extended his point streak to four games with a pair of assists while Matt Donovan also tallied two helpers behind a 29-save effort from Andrey Makarov. Rookie forwards Evan Rodrigues and Jean Dupuy also finished with assists for the Amerks, giving both points in back-to-back games. The game also featured the long awaited season debut of veteran forward Patrick Kaleta, who recorded one shot over 9:43 of ice time after missing the first 18 games recovering from injury.
Morgan Ellis, Daniel Carr and leading point-getter Michael McCarron scored consecutively in the second period to help the IceCaps wipe out a 2-0 deficit while Mark Barberio picked up assists on all three of his team’s goals. Zachary Fucale posted 31 saves in the loss for St. John’s.
It was a back and forth first period between the two teams, especially in goal, where Makarov and Fucale exchanged several big saves in the early going. After Makarov literally kicked the right leg out to deny Charles Hudon from the left circle, Fucale was equal to the task a minute later, robbing Phil Varone from close range to keep the game scoreless.
The Amerks, who dropped the first two meetings with St. John’s earlier this season, would eventually solve Fucale late in the opening frame with Baptiste flipping his third of the season past the IceCaps netminder for a 1-0 lead. Dupuy, the overtime hero from Wednesday’s win over Syracuse, bumped his man off the puck in the left corner, allowing a nearby Rodrigues to swoop in and gain possession. Rodrigues immediately drove to the net where he was cut off by IceCaps defenseman Mac Bennett and the puck slid right onto the tape of Baptiste, who lifted it top shelf with 2:36 remaining.
A slashing penalty to St. John’s’ Gabriel Dumont gave the Amerks a power-play just 3:59 into the second. Only seconds later, it was Ruhwedel who found the back of the net for the second time in as many games off a crossing feed from O’Reilly to make it a 2-0 game.
Rochester’s lead would not last long, however, as just a short time later Ellis brought the IceCaps to within a goal when his shot from the point made its way through traffic and past a screened Makarov.
As the second period drew to a close, the momentum shifted in favor of St. John’s, which quickly took a 3-2 lead courtesy of back-to-back goals from Carr and McCarron a mere 1:21 apart. The IceCaps were able to hold the Amerks off for most of the third period, including successfully killing three Rochester power-play opportunities, but Robak changed that with just 18 seconds left to play when he fired a shot to the upper right corner of the net to send the game to overtime.
With the score even through extra time, the game was decided in the shootout with Akeson scoring the lone goal to seal the win for the Amerks.
With Amerks game report
