ROCHESTER, NY – The Rochester Americans survived three separate comeback attempts from the Syracuse Crunch, but ultimately prevailed in the shootout to claim a 4-3 win over their North Division rivals Sunday at The Blue Cross Arena. The win snapped a four-game slide for the Amerks, who improved to 3-4-0-0 on the young season.
Phil Varone and Jason Akeson each scored in regulation before scoring in back-to-back rounds of the shootout to give Rochester the win. Rookie forward Nick Baptiste also netted the first goal of his pro career and team captain Cal O’Reilly notched two assists for the Amerks while Andrey Makarov stopped 30 of 33 shots he faced to pick up his first win of the season.
Yanni Gourde, Mike Blunden and Anthony DeAngelo each tallied single goals for the Crunch while Adam Wilcox finished with 37 saves in the losing effort, which saw Syracuse rally back from a one-goal deficit in each period of tonight’s contest.
After the Amerks fell victim to an unfortunate bounce in Friday’s outing against Toronto, luck appeared to be on their side tonight with Varone this time being the beneficiary. Matt Donovan offered up a harmless shot from the point that was deflected wide left by Baptiste before coming to rest behind the Syracuse net. Varone gathered the loose puck off the end boards and whipped it toward the goal-mouth, where it would take a generous bounce off the backside of Wilcox for a 1-0 Rochester lead. Donovan would earn the lone assist on the power-play goal.
Syracuse countered just 49 seconds into the second period with Gourde putting home his first of the season to knot the score at one apiece. Makarov made the initial save following an end-to-end rush by Luke Witkowski, but the rebound kicked out to a wide-open Gourde, who made good on the second opportunity from in-between the circles to make it a 1-1 game.
Rochester answered just 1:26 later with Baptiste finishing off a perfectly executed 3-on-2 fast break to put the Amerks back on top, 2-1. Jerry D’Amigo sprung Jerome Leduc free after a quick release pass in the neutral zone. Once Leduc gained the Syracuse blueline, he continued the play down low to O’Reilly, who then one-touched it across the crease to Baptiste for the tap-in past Wilcox.
Blunden evened the score again for the Crunch at 15:22 of the middle frame when he got behind the Rochester defense and roofed the equalizer over the shoulder of Makarov.
The Amerks retook the lead for the third time on the power-play after consecutive penalties by the Crunch would pave the way for a 5-on-3 opportunity. Rochester needed 49 seconds to capitalize on the two-man advantage as Akeson connected on a cross-ice feed from Varone to put the Amerks ahead 3-2 at 4:57 of the final frame.
As was the case through the first two periods, Syracuse again fought its way back when DeAngelo picked the upper corner less than six minutes later to eventually force overtime.
After a scoreless 3-on-3 overtime session that featured plenty of scoring chances and several big saves from each netminder, the game would need the shootout to determine the winner. Varone and Akeson each found the net through the first two rounds while Makarov stonewalled chances from Jonathan Marchessault and Jeff Tambellini to give the Amerks the 4-3 win.
Game report courtesy of Amerks
