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AHL Rochester Americans

Amerks Come up Short to Crunch

January 6, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Rochester, NY) - After falling into a two-goal deficit in the second period, the Rochester Americans (17-10-0-0) scored once in the final minute of the middle frame but were unable to complete the comeback as they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Syracuse Crunch (9-10-2-1) Wednesday night at The Blue Cross Arena.

SCORING SUMMARY 1 2 3 OT SO FINAL

Syracuse 0 2 0 -- -- 2

Rochester 0 1 0 -- -- 1

The Amerks, who entered the matchup having won nine of their last 12 games, saw their season-long five-game home win streak come to an end. It was the team's longest since the 2015-16 season. The home loss was the club's first at The Blue Cross Arena since Nov. 17, 2021.

Forward Ryan MacInnis scored Rochester's lone goal in the final minute of the second period as he tallied his sixth goal of the season from Josh Teves and Linus Weissbach. MacInnis booked his sixth point (2+4) in the last five contest dating back to Dec. 18. Goaltender Michael Houser made his fifth straight, making 14 saves but dropped to 5-3-0 on the season.

Cole Koepke netted his fifth of the campaign to open the scoring before Gabriel Dumont produced his 11th to complete the scoring for Syracuse, who played its first game since Dec. 15. Netminder Max Lagace (4-3-0) stopped 17 of 18 to earn the victory.

Neither team generated much in the first 20 minutes of play as they combined for just 10 shots on net in a fast-moving period.

However, just 87 seconds into the middle stanza, the Crunch opened the scoring as Koepke tapped in a cross-ice feed past the right leg of Houser after Otto Somppi dug the puck out of the right corner of the zone.

Syracuse, who entered play tonight with a 4-5-1-0 record when scoring first, doubled its lead while on the power-play. Prior to the goal at the 17:16 mark from Dumont, Houser made a lunging stop across the goal-crease to stun Alex Barre-Boulet on a one-time feed. The Amerks were unable to clear the rebound and Barre-Boulet fired another shot, but his attempt caromed off the post before Dumont pushed it into the net.

The Amerks pulled within one as Rochester capitalized seconds after the man-advantage in the final five seconds of the frame.

As the period was nearing its end, Brandon Biro stripped a Crunch skater with the puck before skating towards the center of the offensive zone. Biro then pushed a pass to Weissbach atop the left face-off dot. Drawing the attention of the opposition, Weissbach fed Teves for a one-time feed, but rather than shooting the puck towards the net, the blueliner fired it towards the stick of MacInnis, who was in position for the quick redirect.

In the final frame, despite outshooting the Crunch 10-2 and drawing three additional power-plays, the Amerks could not complete the comeback as they up short to Syracuse.

The Amerks continue their busy stretch of games in back-to-back nights as they welcome the Hartford Wolf Pack to The Blue Cross Arena on Friday, Jan. 7. Following the 7:05 p.m. matchup, Rochester has a rematch with the Crunch in Downtown Syracuse at the Upstate Medical University Arena at 7:00 P.m. on Saturday, Jan 8. Both games will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.

SYRACUSE GAMECENTER ROCHESTER

C. Koepke (5), G. Dumont (11 - GWG) GOAL-SCORERS R. MacInnis (6)

M. Lagace - 17/18 (W) GOALTENDERS M. Houser - 14/16 (L)

1-3 POWER-PLAY 0-5

5-5 PENALTY KILL 2-3

16 SHOTS ON GOAL 18

VIDEO CENTER

GAME HIGHLIGHTS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRJJMd7oHc0

SETH APPERT POST-GAME: https://youtu.be/de7q_XAieyk

MICHAEL HOUSER POST-GAME: https://youtu.be/qQ0oL7DYq0I

JACK QUINN POST-GAME: https://youtu.be/fl2SrPyDGVw

JIMMY SCHULDT POST-GAME: https://youtu.be/6GLwW-fN62c

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