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Rochester Americans

Americans' comeback falls short

March 19, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Rochester, NY)... Despite rallying back from a 3-0 deficit, the Rochester Americans' comeback hopes were stymied in a 4-2 loss to the Binghamton Senators tonight at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Binghamton's power-play converted on three of its seven opportunities as Rochester has now dropped three of its last four and fell to 38-29-2-0 with just 11 games left in the regular season.

Veteran forward Graham Mink snapped a 17-game goal scoring drought and first-year defenseman John de Gray scored his first goal as an Amerk to provide Rochester's pair of goals. Rookie goaltender Alexander Salak turned away 32 saves in the losing effort.

Binghamton forward Martin St. Pierre, a 2010 AHL All-Star, paced the hometown Senators with three points (2+1), while forward Ryan Keller (1+1) and John Hennessy (0+2) each posted two-point outings. Goaltender Chris Holt, who also became the first goalie in Binghamton history to score a goal, made 30 saves to pick up third star honors.

St. Pierre scored back-to-back power-play goals, the first at 14:33 of the opening period and the other at 5:48 of the second stanza, to put the Senators on top 2-0. Hennessy notched both his helpers of the night on the tallies and Keller notched his first point of the night on St. Pierre's first marker.

Keller potted his team-leading 30th goal of the season, and eventual game-winner, at 8:40 of the second period to give the B-Sens a 3-0 cushion, with assists going to Zach Smith and Jonathan Cheechoo.

Rochester finally got on the board with just one second left in the middle frame as Mink netted his 16th goal of the campaign to make it a 3-1 game. The tally was Mink's first since scoring a pair against the B-Sens back on February 6th, erasing a season-long period of 17 games without neither a goal nor a single point. The two-time Calder Cup champion is now just one goal shy of his 200th as a professional. Clay Wilson and Chris Taylor assisted on the goal. Taylor is now a mere two points away from becoming only the 80th player in American Hockey League history to reach the 500-point plateau.

De Gray cut the Binghamton lead to one with his first in an Amerk uniform at 2:49 of the final frame. David Brine and Michal Repik, in his first game back with the Amerks since a three-game stint with the Florida Panthers, earned the assists on the play.

After Repik took a tripping penalty late in the game, and with Salak on Rochester's bench to make room for an extra attacker in the final minute of regulation, Holt shot the puck the length of the ice and into the vacated net. His first career goal secured the 4-2 victory for the Senators. He became the 10th AHL netminder to be credited with a goal and just the sixth to score by actually shooting the puck into the net. Holt is also the first goalie for Binghamton to join the elite class.

The Amerks wrap up the weekend on Saturday, March 20th as they cross into Pennsylvanian borders to visit the East Division Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Faceoff is slated for 7:05 p.m. The matchup will be the fourth and final meeting between the two teams this season, with Rochester earning a 5-3 win in the previous get-together back on January 23rd. Fans can tune into the live broadcast on SportsRadio 1280 WHTK and FM 107.3, Rochester's Sports Talk. The Amerks are 2-1-0-0 this season and 12-7-6 all-time against the Pittsburgh Penguins' affiliate.

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