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AHL Rochester Americans

Amerks End Skid with 5-1 Win over Monsters

February 24, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Cleveland, OH)... The Rochester Americans received goals from five different players and rode a solid 37-save effort from goaltender Matt Hackett to pull out a 5-1 victory over the Lake Erie Monsters Tuesday morning at Quicken Loans Arena. The win makes it three straight over the Monsters this season and snaps a four-game winless streak for the Amerks, who improve to 23-29-4-0 heading into the final week of February.

Defenseman Jerome Leduc finished with a career-high three points (1+2) while forwards Phil Varone (1+1) and William Carrier (0+2) each recorded two points in the win. Zac Dalpe, Evan Rankin and Dan Catenacci also provided single tallies for Rochester. Hackett, making his fourth start in six games for the Amerks, turned aside 37 of the 38 shots he faced to earn his fifth win in 10 games this season.

Sam Henley scored the lone goal for the Monsters and Calvin Pickard made 27 saves in the loss as Lake Erie fell to 24-21-4-3 on the season.

The red-hot Dalpe got things going for the Amerks midway through the first period, converting a long clearing pass into his 15th goal of the season for a 1-0 Rochester advantage at 9:01. Varone won a clean face-off in the Rochester zone back to Chad Ruhwedel, who would control momentarily before using the right wing boards to flip the puck out of harm's way. Dalpe beat his man to the puck at the Lake Erie blueline, drove hard to the net and banked a shot off the left post and in to put the Amerks in front of the hosts. With the goal, Dalpe is now tied for the team lead with Tim Schaller and gives the veteran forward 15 points (9+6) over his last 14 games.

Rochester upped its lead to a pair less than six minutes later on a shorthanded tally by Leduc, who finished a nifty set-up by Jerry D'Amigo after joining the offensive rush late. The play began with a big individual effort from Schaller after he caused a turnover at the Amerks blueline and then won a loose puck battle in the neutral zone before leaving it for D'Amigo. D'Amigo continued the rush into the Monsters zone and floated a pass to a streaking Leduc, who lifted his fifth of the season over the shoulder of Pickard to put the Amerks ahead 2-0.

The Amerks nearly potted their second straight shorthanded marker just seconds later, but Reid Petryk stopped the puck from crossing the line and the Monsters would capitalize on the ensuing transition when Henley put a Kenny Ryan rebound past Hackett on the power-play with 1:04 remaining in the opening period.

Henley's fourth of the season would be as close as Lake Erie would come, however, as Rochester pulled away with three straight unanswered goals, beginning with a power-play tally of its own at 9:21 of the second when Varone swept in his own rebound to restore the two-goal lead.

The Amerks blew the game wide open after Rankin added some insurance with his second of the season just 3:01 into the final frame as he picked the upper left corner oFf a 2-on-1 fastbreak to give Rochester a comfortable 4-1 advantage. Both Varone and Carrier each assisted on the play for their second points of the day. Catenacci rounded out the scoring for the visitors with 2:14 remaining in the third period, taking a pass from Brodie Reid and sending a back-hander inside the far post to seal the 5-1 win for the Amerks.

After a quick turnaround, the Amerks return home on Wednesday, Feb. 25 for another go-around with the league-leading Syracuse Crunch at The Blue Cross Arena. Rochester looks to even the score with the Crunch, who held off a late comeback from the Amerks and escaped town with a 4-3 win in the teams' previous get-together this past Sunday. The 7:05 p.m. matchup will be the seventh of eight meetings between the intrastate rivals this season and will be carried live on FOX Sports 1280 Rochester. The game will also be televised live locally on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel 26 and 323 for viewers in the Buffalo market.

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